BI Talk - Tinatin Gurgenidze

January february march: On Energy, Time, and Submerged Memory

The Georgian Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale 2023

Date: December 17, 2025, 11:00 – 12:30

Place: BI, Studio 3

Speaker: Tinatin Gurgenidze, Independent researcher and curator; co-founder of the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, Georgia.

Abstract: The Georgian Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia (2023) presented "january february march," a research-based exploration of the socio-spatial and ecological changes brought about by hydroelectric infrastructure in Georgia’s Dusheti region. Focused on the Zhinvali reservoir—a dam-created lake that submerged villages and a twelfth-century church—the project examined how engineered landscapes create new temporalities and forms of collective memory.

By treating "energy" as both a material and a political concept, the pavilion linked hydropower production to broader issues of displacement, governance, and environmental change. The installation, made from sediment blocks of river sludge, illustrated the idea of "negative memory" and brought to light the submerged histories of the area.

In her talk, Tinatin Gurgenidze will reflect on the pavilion’s conceptual and curatorial framework, placing it within contemporary discussions on landscape infrastructure, environmental temporality, and post-socialist spatial transformation.