look inside

Shvilishvili (signed + print)

by Jana Romanova

Photographs: Jana Romanova

Publisher: selfpublished

Pictures: 123

Year: 2013

Comments: edition of 67; handmade artist book of 123 images, 2 canvases 15x21 cm, 2 postcards, 2 letters, 7 old soviet plastic bags, 1 m of a rope, 7 m of a sticky tape; Dimension: 15 x 21 cm; signed and numbered.

“Shvilishvili” is Georgian for “grandchild”, literally it could be translated as “a child of a child”. In this very personal project, presented as a hand-made limited edition photography book-object, the author questions the the value of family ties in modern society through the blood line that connects and separates her relatives who live both in Russia and Georgia. The family is divided between two countries, and the problems of it’s members on both sides of the border arise from the post-war political situation as well as the tragic story of a murder commited inside the family.

"My grandmother was Georgian. She played the piano, cooked satsivi, spoke georgian on the phone and told my grandfather, who was a military general, to stop the car on the red light. On 16 of January 1999 they both were killed. Since that time my father almost never spoke with his brother, I’ve not seen both of my cousins, and nobody ever tried to contact the family of my grandmother in Tbilisi. 13 years later I suddenly found that I have around 100 relatives in Georgia, and they want to see me." (Jana Romanova)

More books by Jana Romanova