Artist Zinaïda Tchelidze has developed a practice that explores the performative aspects of social gatherings. Supra – the traditional feast of her native country Georgia has become the inspiration for the performative table Mastering Ceremonies. It includes a series of works, where she analyzes the form and rules of this choreographed custom: there are toasts and codes to follow, it is strictly gendered, a male master of ceremonies is in charge. Interested in what the elements of supra could show about ceremonies in general, Zinaïda Tchelidze sets the table in another cultural context, inviting artists not familiar with this tradition or its forms, to get involved, assume different roles and perform ceremonial acts. She interprets certain codes of the Georgian feast and provides playful open-ended tasks for her invited masters of ceremony. Providing a diversity of voices and contextual juxtapositions, in this event she reimagines how gatherings and ceremonies function, expand and shift through this collaborative process, creating something new by situating ancient knowledge in a very different present context.

Zinaïda Tchelidze (b.1982, Georgia) is an artist and educator, working mainly with sculpture and installation. She obtained an MA in printmaking and art in public space from the Royal Academy of Fine Art of Brussels. Tchelidze is interested in performative aspects of exchange and sharing. She engages with recurring gestures, intertwines them throughout installations to explore spatial constraints, notions of collectiveness and isolation. As part of her collaborative practice she works with craftspeople, scientists, and artists to test the boundaries between creativity and (not)knowing. Inspired by the traditional Georgian feast (supra), she has been organising the “Rubeli” performative table questioning the phenomenon of hospitality and exchange, and their different forms in relation to time and social conditioning.

Tchelidze lives and works in Brussels. She has exhibited at various venues such as Art Antwerp fair for the representation of the FW-B (2022); SB34-Clovis, Brussels (2022); Het Paviljoen, Ghent (2021); Morpho, Antwerp Art Weekend (2021); DuflonRacz, Brussels (2019, 2020); Vanderborght Building, Brussels (2019); CENTRALE for contemporary art, Brussels (2019); World Trade Center, Brussels (2018), among others.

With the support of National Wine Agency, Georgia