Author: Nika Somkhishvili 
Curator: Myriam Grigalashvili

After the Russian invasion in 2008, 130,000 Georgian citizens were forced to leave their homes. 22,000 of them are still displaced. During the war, approximately 35,000 houses were burned or completely destroyed in the conflict zone, in which several generations had spent their entire lives. The government of Georgia built up to 4,000 cottages for the temporary accommodation of IDPs in thirteen different places - mostly in plain fields, where thousands of people, waiting to return home, had to start a new life. Over the years, these visually identical 67 square meter cottages have changed their appearance thanks to their residents, and today each of them tells a different story about their inhabitants, about their past and present. It is through the visual research of these settlements that photographer Nika Somkhishvili tries to answer such questions as: how does life continue in a foreign place, after the loss of one's home and the tragedy of war? How does a person shape his living environment? And vice versa, what is the impact of the living environment on a person?

The project prepared with the support of Art House.