Curated by Tamuna Arshba and Tata Ksovreli

Zurab Arabidze's series of black-and-white portraits “Fatal Silence” 2009, explores the phenomenon of enforced silence, the disappearance of communicative language, and the mechanisms of power control. Silence is one of the critical concerns in postmodernism, yet it is not merely about quietness—a natural state. Rather, silence is intrinsically tied to the will of the subject, existing in a binary relationship with speech and language. In the quietness , nothing is heard, and in silence no one speaks; yet silence and speech cannot exist without each other—they coexist in parallel. Can the state of profound, even fatal silence be conveyed through words? Perhaps it is better expressed through a visual language. In the series of “Fatal Silence”, photo-portraits are created using multiple exposures, with some prints produced by stacking film layers, resulting in a multidimensional image. These portraits do not depict quietness in its pure form but instead evoke noise—fragmented, dissonant messages that ultimately converge into a single expression: frustration, despair or madness. In this context, Michel Foucault’s discourse on the "archaeology of silence” becomes particularly relevant, as the philosopher structurally examines silence through the lens of his research on madness. The “archaeology of silence” does not signify muteness or the mere absence of words; rather, it concerns the mind’s command to cease or revoke speech. The phenomenon of madness is already embedded within the essence of language itself, perceived in the realm of consciousness as a code signifying illness—one that has coexisted with reason since antiquity. Both the rational and the mad belong to the same logos, yet in the classical era, the "decision" was made to separate them. This division stripped madness of its voice, placing it under a system of prohibition and control—within prisons, asylums, and isolated spaces. Foucault’s study fundamentally explores the nature of the human being as a social entity. Contemporary culture frequently turns to the analysis of madness within psychological research as a means of understanding human essence—an act akin to looking into a mirror. This example contrasts different states of mind, where one state silences the other through mechanisms of control and fear. Such silence, on one hand, manifests as an abyss, while on the other, recognizing the abyss simultaneously leads toward the existential understanding profound bases of human society. 

Tamuna Arshba

Zurab Arabidze is a Georgian architect and artist whose career represents a synthesis of architectural logic and minimalist art. In his work, space is stripped to its essence, and form exists not for the sake of presence, but for the sake of silence. He explores absence as a tool of expression, where meaning is born in emptiness and the contours of reality dissolve into pure lines. Born and raised in Tbilisi — a city suspended between past and future, history and chaos — he absorbed both ancient traditions and contemporary artistic impulses. From an early age, architecture became his inner language — a way to impose order on the unpredictable flow of time and space. After earning a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Georgian Technical University, he combined academic rigor with a subtle intuition that allows him to sense the invisible. His projects are more than interactions of lines and volumes — they are dialogues between light and shadow, presence and absence, reality and imagination. In both architecture and contemporary art, he strives to capture the ephemeral: to seize a moment before it vanishes and preserve it in a form where time stands still. Zurab Arabidze exhibits internationally. His work exists beyond borders — in a space where minimalism becomes a mode of thinking, a philosophy of essential clarity. This is art where everything excessive disappears, leaving only the essence.