Georgia Sagri
Kyiv Biennial 2023

Georgia Sagri participates in the main exhibition of Kyiv Biennial 2023, with two performance pieces, Deep Listening (2001) and Breathing 7_1_7 with Embryac Position / Sunset which will perform on the opening day of the Biennial as well as with the work Deep Cut which will be installed in the main exhibition venue.

The fifth edition of Kyiv Biennial is conceived as a European event, with dispersed exhibitions and public programs in a number of Ukrainian and EU cities, and realized in partnership with leading European institutions in the field of contemporary art.

Performance lies at the center of Georgia Sagri’s work. Through the years, the artist has developed a practice of care she terms IASI, in reference to the Greek word ίαση standing for recovery. This was born out of her need to prepare and recuperate from demanding performance pieces. IASI has since shifted into ongoing research on conditions of the body, which Sagri calls “performance pathologies”. Following an eclectic method of repair, preservation and reinvention, the artist comments on the body per se and the way it is wounded and healed. Her one-on-one treatments aim to reclaim or remind each person of the sense of the unique strength we each hold deep in our system, which is the basis of readiness for meaningful public encounters. Sagri’s method addresses physical pain as a symptom of imbalance in (social) life. One that can also lead us to recovery.

Deep Cut depicts a hyper-realistic representation of a cut at the moment of bleeding in an oversized dimension. Is the bleeding cut on the artist or are the walls bleeding? Does the work imply the audience is hurt, the city and the country? How deep is a cut? Is it ever completely cured or does it leave its mark forever? Does a wound return as a reminder or does it vanish with the help of plastic surgery? The means we use to take care of the unstoppable bleeding cut, the ways we recover from its repetitive and unsurpassed state, defines our present and our future. The size of the wound and its socio-political aspects surpass everyday facts and exposes us to an uncertain tomorrow. The Deep Cut is the break of the tissue, it is the wound of nature, its silent mourning. The wound of a divided society is what cuts up something superficially connected and seemingly unbreakable and reveals the chaotic gap, spiritual or existential, realistic or cultural, that defines contemporary societies.