Thea Djordjadze: Part V

V.


Installation view of work by Thea Djordjadze in the exhibition “Melanchotopia,” organized by Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, at multiple sites in Rotterdam. Photo ART iT.

ART iT: Do you read the poems of Anna Akhmatova? Is she at all important for you? Her sense for the way emotions are materially expressed and registered reminds me of the works you made for the exhibition “Melanchotopia” in Rotterdam – the large glass panels suspended and propped at different angles in the glass display cases, and stained along their edges with traces of colored washes that subtly underscore the weight and transparency of the objects.

TD: Akhmatova is important to me more as a historical figure than as a poet, although there are other poets whose works are very dear to me. There is a book of interviews with Joseph Brodsky by Solomon Volkov. Like Brodsky, Volkov was also a Russian émigré, and they conducted the interviews over several years. It seems that Brodsky was difficult to interview but Volkov got a lot out of him, sometimes asking especially stupid questions in order to anger Brodsky and get him to talk.
One person Brodsky returns to throughout the interviews is Akhmatova. She was already old when he met her, when he was around the age of 20. Along with a group of other poets, he would go to visit her at the village where she was living at the time, and fell in love with her. He describes her as someone who taught him what to stand for in life, how to be as a person. He took care of her and buried her, because she was abandoned at the end of her life. But even so, she was a courageous person and a model for him. He recalls the experience of being with her as being in the presence of someone so awesome that her energy made him clean and thoughtful and profound. Just being next to her – how she looked, her humor – he thinks it’s a big part in him.

ART iT: So you were attracted to Brodsky’s descriptions of Akhmatova?

TD: Well, you never know about these things, and I guess the truth doesn’t matter, but of course Brodsky’s descriptions made me attracted to her.


Part IIIIIIIV | VI

Thea Djordjadze: The Secret Border in Human Closeness

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