Ribirabo Foundation carried out this project in 2021 with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Youth of the Republic of Georgia.
Georgianmosaics.com website and application were built with the goal of bringing together in one virtual area all of the mosaics made in Georgia during the Soviet era throughout the twentieth century. It should be emphasized that this was the most productive time for Georgian mosaics. During this time, hundreds of wonderful masterpieces were made. Many of them are the works of outstanding Georgian artists, the names of many of whom we found while working on the project.
For the website, we designed a one-of-a-kind logo based on a graphic reproduction of a fraction of a long-lost mosaic by the great Georgian painter Victor Chumburidze. To our great sadness, all of Viktor Chumburidze’s mosaics have not reached us, including his main masterpiece, a mosaic panel created in the 1970s on the wall of Khashuri’s old industrial complex. Only pictures have survived to tell the story of this grandiose work. We chose to transfer one of its fragments, portraying an Owl, on our website as a reminder that real art is indestructible.
The world community is currently paying considerable attention to the preservation of historical and cultural heritage. Mosaics, however, are rarely given legal protection in our country. As a result, they are sometimes neglected and even destroyed. In this regard, there was an urgent need to conduct a thorough inventory of twentieth-century mosaics on Georgian territory as of 2021 and build a mosaic card index.It should be mentioned that mosaics are not archaic art forms. They were created in Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, the Middle East, and the Soviet Union. Mosaic was one of the few tools available for city decoration. Mosaics are unique in that they may be found on both the inside and outside of structures. At the same time, mosaics cannot be considered apart from the function of the structure on which they are installed, albeit the design may not always be linked to a particular object. Mosaics have become a part of everyday life, and this touristic, naive-childish perception has to be awakened. After all, it is simple to follow the history of ideology via mosaics, comprehend parts of daily life, and even comprehend what people believed and dreamt about. Mosaics should be viewed not just as works of art, but also as one-of-a-kind historical documents that depict one or more historical eras in detail using the language of fine art.Such historical evidence must be properly preserved and passed down to future generations. This will aid in the preservation of the country’s cultural heritage, which, as you know, is essential for national self-identification. Georgian mosaics from the Soviet period are distinctive in that their iconography frequently relies on elements of folklore, historical events from the pre-Soviet era, and the work of Georgian literary masters. Furthermore, many Georgian mosaics from the second half of the twentieth century are geared toward the avant-garde themes associated with postmodern art. It is probable that the mosaic of the Soviet period embodies the essence of Georgian fine art of the postmodern period.
You can find more information about this project by visiting the website https://georgianmosaics.com
Georgian Mosaics application can be downloaded from:
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/georgian-mosaics/id1601409902
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.georgianmosaics
Ribirabo Foundation would like to thank the following organizations and individuals for their support in this project: Food Alliance, SICPA, Blauenstein, Jean-Patrick Voisin and Mehmet Koçak.
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