ICBS, University of Vienna
24–30.08.2026
Presented in the Ceremonial Hall area of the University of Vienna within the framework of the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Byzantium and Beyond Byzantium, Posterity: Glittering Materiality explores the dialogue between Byzantine and medieval Georgian traditions and contemporary artistic practice through the work of Nina Gamsachurdia, a Georgian artist based in Basel. Curated by Lechbinska Gallery, the exhibition examines the transmission of artistic knowledge, material practices, and symbolic systems across centuries through continual reinterpretation and renewal.
Educated at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and trained in Byzantine studies, Gamsachurdia continued her research after relocating to Basel in 1992, where restoration practice, art-historical scholarship, and contemporary artistic production converged. Her practice embodies the dual role of artist and researcher, carrying forward historical techniques and symbolic systems through continuous reinterpretation rather than reconstruction of the past.
Through this pioneering collaboration with academic world, Lechbinska Gallery proposes that posterity is neither inheritance nor repetition, but the continual reactivation of cultural memory through artistic practice. Here, stone is translated into pigment, light becomes image, and historical knowledge is transformed into contemporary experience. Gamsachurdia's work affirms that the past remains active not because it is preserved unchanged, but because it continues to generate new forms of artistic thought.
Text by Dr. Miriam Dvali
Educated at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and trained in Byzantine studies, Gamsachurdia continued her research after relocating to Basel in 1992, where restoration practice, art-historical scholarship, and contemporary artistic production converged. Her practice embodies the dual role of artist and researcher, carrying forward historical techniques and symbolic systems through continuous reinterpretation rather than reconstruction of the past.
Through this pioneering collaboration with academic world, Lechbinska Gallery proposes that posterity is neither inheritance nor repetition, but the continual reactivation of cultural memory through artistic practice. Here, stone is translated into pigment, light becomes image, and historical knowledge is transformed into contemporary experience. Gamsachurdia's work affirms that the past remains active not because it is preserved unchanged, but because it continues to generate new forms of artistic thought.
Text by Dr. Miriam Dvali
by Dr. Mariam Dvali · 8 min read
by Dr. Ekaterine Gedevanishvili · 7 min read
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