Shotiko Aptsiauri | Waterless Swimming

May 15 - June 30, 2021

What happens to a person when they have to function in an environment where everything around him loses its original look and content? How do they adapt to the changing environment of lockdowns, quarantine and other changes? After the change of the economic system in the city of Kutaisi in Georgia, the only pool in this city was left without water, yet swimming lessons were still held in Soviet-era pool. In these lessons, students mimed their swimming exercises. You would hear the phrase "imagine you are in the water" from the coach. Students tried their best, to swim without water on certain days of the week.

Waterless swimming is a work based on the Observation of dysfunctional pools after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which revives the nostalgic, poetic impulses of swimming without water in allegoric self-ironic and dramatic ways.