In keeping with a recurring motif in the work of Georgian artist Tolia Astakhishvili, the artist’s first solo museum exhibition will proceed from the concept of the “figure of the child.” In this context, the child embodies both a high degree of intellectual and creative autonomy and a profound dependence on others. Accordingly, Astakhishvili focuses on the experience of art itself, extending it to movement and touch and breaking with the conventions of museum presentation. The notion of the “first encounter,” as children experience it when initially perceiving a phenomenon, serves here as a key to a new kind of experience. Astakhishvili’s extensive body of work is characterized by a keen sensitivity to spaces as multi-layered entities shaped by all the people who experience them. The artist works across sculpture, sound, video, architectural elements, painting, and drawing, combining these approaches in large-scale installations. 

Figure of the Child has been developed in dialogue with numerous collaborators, mumok’s collection, and external loans, including works by Zurab Astakhishvili, Aurel, Ştefan Bertalan, Kaucyila Brooke, Veronica Brovall, Günter Brus, Elene Chantladze, James Ensor, Nan Goldin, Yaryna Fedoriv, Irma Gubeladze, Ull Hohn, Paul Joostens, Alison Knowles, Louise Lawler, Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik, Dylan Peirce, Pablo Picasso, Charlotte Posenenske, James Richards, Irena Rosc, Medardo Rosso, Dieter Roth, Maka Sanadze, and Heimo Zobernig.

The exhibition opening is accompanied by the publication of the first of three artist’s books on Tolia Astakhishvili’s Figure of the Child, with texts by Kirsty Bell, Fatima Hellberg and Liesl Ujvary, designed in collaboration with Syndicat. 

Tolia Astakhishvili (born 1974 in Tbilisi, Georgia) lives and works in Tbilisi and Berlin. 

Curated by Fatima Hellberg and Manuela Ammer

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