Curators: Guram Tsibakashvili, Mariam Tsikaridze, Nika Dumbadze

The photos presented at the exhibition How to Remember the 1980s focus on the history of the eighties and tell us about disintegration of the Soviet Union, events taking place in Georgia at the end of the era. David Sulakvelidze was a direct participant of the process who documented the daily surroundings with a photo film. The exhibited photos tell a recent history of Georgia at the same time following the events of one person's life.

David Sulakvelidze was born in Tbilisi in 1952. The photographer worked in different fields simultaneously, being friends with people from different professions - science, cinema, theater, visual arts, rock music, sports... And it turned out that he managed to depict insider life of Tbilisi of the 1970s and 1980s as a representative of diverse fields reflecting on them from different angles. His photos clearly show the striving to freedom, important trends that manifested themselves in the society immediately before Georgia's independence.

Sulakvelidze graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Tbilisi State University in 1974 and started working at the Andria Razmadze Institute of Mathematics. He became an active member of the photographers’ group Tvalsazarisi (Point of View) where he engaged in the work as a creative photographer. Since the 1970s, he has gotten enthusiastic about rock, and the music that was banned in the Soviet Union because of being associated with freedom. Sulakvelidze played at unofficial concerts together with Valery Kocharov, Dato Popkhadze, and other musicians. He also took an active part in establishment of the karate culture and the Georgian Karate Federation. Starting from 1988 he was actively involved in creation of the Georgian National Olympic Committee at the same time working as a professional referee.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, David Sulakvelidze has gotten familiar with graphic design and started working in one of the first private printing houses Calamus Graphics Studio.

David Sulakvelidze's multifaceted fields of activity and interests award his photo archive a unique value as he was given the opportunity to document the events as an insider and a direct representative of the above-mentioned fields.