Tekla Aslanishvili is an artist, filmmaker and essayist. Her work reflects on the intersections between history, geopolitics and infrastructure for transport and energy. She often adopts an interdisciplinary perspective by collaborating with researchers and develops experimental documentary formats after an extensive research phase.
Two films are being screened at the Berlinische Galerie: In “Scenes from Trial and Error” (2020, 30 min.) the artist takes a close look at the planned city Anaklia in Georgia. A little fishing village on the Black Sea is to be transformed into a futuristic “smart city” but for the last 20 years implementation has failed again and again. The film examines the impact of this ambitious infrastructure project aimed at turning the country into a trade corridor for the “New Silk Road” connecting Asia with the West.
It also speculates on potential development scenarios for the future.
“A State in a State” (2022, 47 min.) has its primary focus on the “BTK” rail route which runs from Baku in Azerbaijan via the Georgian capital Tbilisi to Kars in Türkiye and about the fragile political boundaries that have emerged in the South Caucasus and Caspian regions since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In a range of interviews—with journalists, rail—way workers and researchers—Aslanishvili explores how railways are used as instruments of exclusion and geopolitical sabotage. At the same time, she flags up strategies adopted by workers to counter state coercion—as well as the transnational bonds between people who live and work around these infrastructures.
at Berlinische Galerie
until June 17, 2024