AN UNUSUAL EXHIBITION
(არაჩვეულებრივი გამოფენა)
Dir. Eldar Shengelaia, 1968.
Georgia. 89 min.
In Georgian with English subtitles.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 - 7:30PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 - 5PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 - 10PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 - 10PM

AN UNUSUAL EXHIBITION showcases the life and adventures of Aguli, a sculptor who, injured in the second world war, returns home to resume his artistic practice. In his studio’s courtyard stands a large piece of marble gifted to him by his former teacher. The white marble becomes the artist’s white whale. Unable to ever begin carving due to everchanging ideas, commissions for grave monuments, the war effort, a seemingly unending amount of children, and even his own drunken indiscretions. The behemoth blank page plagues the artist, who takes out his inability to spend time on his own work on his wife, who takes on all domestic responsibilities, and his father.

Shengelaia approaches the life of an artist with his usual brand of humor, satire, and sardonicism. Aguli encounters all of the naysayers a creative might deal with in their career. Finicky clients who just need to see the smallest amount of their own direction in the work, regardless of how much actually changes. Never able to create his own artistic expressions, the local graveyard becomes his exhibition where Aguli can look back on his accomplishments and past commissions. The film presents a truth for the aspirational working class creative: life gets in the way. But for Aguli, and the rest of us, perhaps it’s the art that got in the way of life.