Damp, Curled / ნოტიო, ხვეული
For the performance Damp, Curled artist Ana Gzirishvili is collaborating with a flutist Giga Kaplanishvili and a street musician Evgenia Gabrielyan ( artist name – Lina, or Anjelina). The performance touches upon the chaotic impulses of the local Tbilisian surroundings/environment and investigates an archetype of a singer, specifically a street singer who is present in our daily lives. The ‘’reader’’ character (Ana) is a tired person who came to the event just to rest and watch the sunset scenery.
For this person the living environment is crammed with undigested contexts, rubble, and too many objects, which confuse, hinder and make people lose their balance and fall. Someone coming from such a chaotic world rejects this complex mess and wants to look at or experience something, clean, simple, beautiful, and banal. In the text there is yearning for the Western lifestyle and order which is so different from the Georgian locality and which is so desired by the local youth. Street singer soaks in these ‘’too many objects’’, becomes a conduit and pours it out as another condensed mess or a reflective surface. Poetry also touches upon a specific cityscape tissue, for example a huge rectangular glass building – hotel Radisson Blu overlooking the performance area.
The general dramaturgy of the performance gives the viewer a feeling of a random witness. It opens with a flute composition in the building and gradually moves to the outdoor area. Text is also changing according to the movement. The first part, in the building, is about a random person living and experiencing Tbilisi, the next stage, under the grapes, is talking more about a female experience in the city, and the last part, in the courtyard, talks about an artist – someone who wants to create in Tbilisi. Flute, text and vocals are interchanging with each other. Ana is reading in Georgian. Text is a mix of poetry and direct storytelling. In some parts it is read as a melody, alluding to the Persian style of reading poetry, which was, at some point, a part of Georgian culture as well. Evgenia is performing two Georgian songs written by Ana and two other songs from her own romantic repertoire – one Armenian song Siro Patmutyun ( in Armenian – a love story) and Reality by Richard Sanderson. Giga kaplanishvili is mostly improvising with the flute using his own composition and in some parts composition by Herman Beeftink. Flute sounds bring the anticipation of death, the sunset, and a restart.
The performance happened on the 31st of October 2022, at Left Bank Tbilisi.
Performers EVGENIA GABRIELYAN / ANJELINA
GIGA KAPLANISHVILI
ANA GZIRISHVILI
Filmed by Artarea HTTPS://ARTAREA.TV/EN/
Produced by Left Bank HTTPS://LEFTBANK.CLUB/
Left Bank Tbilisi, Andro Eradze.
https://leftbank.club/