War from My Window

A key figure in contemporary Georgian art, Koka Ramishvili’s practice developed amid the political, social, and cultural shifts of the post‑Soviet period. From the very outset it has been marked by a reflective approach and a precise choice of media and forms attuned to the concurrent context. Working primarily with photography and video, Ramishvili has refined his visual language to a high degree of expressiveness while maintaining a subtle connection to historical and cultural realities.

Ramishvili’s work War from My Window documents a two‑week military coup in Georgia, also known as the Tbilisi War or the coup d’état (December 22, 1991–January 6, 1992), which marked the culmination of an internal political crisis. The uprising broke out eight months after Georgia declared independence. The country’s first president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, elected in May 1991, rapidly lost public support after failing to establish dialogue with the opposition, alienating the intelligentsia and major business figures and exacerbating tensions with national minorities, which escalated into the Georgian–South Ossetian conflict. The confrontation unfolded between National Guard units loyal to the president and opposition forces supported by the Mkhedrioni armed groups. By January 6, the coup had ended with the victory of the insurgents and Gamsakhurdia’s flight, marking the beginning of a protracted civil war that lasted until 1993.

Over the course of 12 days—from Christmas to Epiphany, coinciding with the dates of the conflict—Ramishvili photographed the fighting in the center of the Georgian capital from the window of his apartment, his camera directed at the government building, occasionally slightly shifting. Even though the artist did not aim to explore the possibilities of photo documentation of warfare as such, his chosen vantage point deliberately avoids dramatic composition. In the black‑and‑white urban landscape, shrouded in smoke from explosions, war does not occupy the central position. According to Ramishvili, the process of creating this piece is a metaphor for the indifference that most city residents showed toward those historical events.