A few weeks ago 9 internationally renowned mural artist gathered in the Georgian city of Tbilisi invited to participate in the 3rd edition of the Tbilisi mural festival.
During the last three years 33 murals has been created in the framework of the festival since 2019, creating an open exhibition at different locations and making Georgia an important hub for muralism where you can find Large-scale murals artists such as Innerfields, Case Maclaim, Artez, INO, and Georgian artists like Dante, Giorgi Maskharashvili, V45, Irakli Kadeishvili and Zviad Esartia.
This year’s line counts with MONKEYBIRD (France), FAITH47 (South Africa), JDL (Holland), APHE (Oliver Hollatz) and NOAH (Noah Kauertz) (Germany), MAZZA (Brazil), 1010 (Germany), KADE 90 (Georgia), and DAVID SAMKHARADZE (Georgia), adding 9 new murals to Tbilisis’s open air museum.
According to the organisers, the idea behind their work is to transform Tbilisi into a Street Art metropole. When it comes to the idea behind this year’s festival, it is still a bit unclear for me what underlying concept is, but the festival resulted in a group of appealing murals. Here are some of them:
Faith47 “Solar Logos” 2021
Solar Logos I, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2021 As humans our ancient relationship with the sun lends itself to deification. Sun-worship has been with us since pagan antiquity, among the Persians, Indians, Greeks, Mayans and other ancient cultures. We hold a deep rooted, innate understanding that the beams and brilliance, our central, inner spiritual Sun, are mirrored […] – Faith47
JDL “Hold Me Tight” 2021
“This is a tribute mural to all the broken and beautiful people I have met in the past year. One by one, they showed me their vulnerability. I notice people are often ashamed of their vulnerability, while I see the beauty in it. This mural is a reminder to embrace yourself (and your fragility), even though, it does not seem natural in, for instance, a depression. These people are the most admirable people that I have met in my life, including their trauma.” – JDL
Monekybird “Pensées divergences” 2021
Aphe and noah 2021
David Samkharadze “Portrait of chess player Nona Gaprindashvili” 2021
Irakli Qadeishvili 2021
Images by Keti Maziashvili & Ana Kacheishvili
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
