This year, Mariam Natroshvili and Detu Jincharadze will represent the Georgian National Pavilion with their savory, captivating, neo-surrealist work that was created through their unique visual language - "I Pity the Garden".

As a friend of mine always says, there are two kinds of people in this world: Gurians, and everybody else. “Mind you,” he’ll then add, “Gurians aren’t descended from Egros, but from Kartlos, like most other Georgians”. And that’s what makes Guria a land of paradoxes, or paradoxical, if you will. More about that later. Guria truly is a beautiful place. It’s also the poorest place you’ve ever seen.

The Tao-Klarjeti region, which is located in what is now north-eastern Turkey, used to be one of the most prominent political and cultural centres of medieval Georgia, especially in the 9th –13th cc. The history of these monuments is closely linked to one of the most important moments in the history of Georgia – namely the upsurge of a strong movement aimed at unifying the Georgian kingdoms and principalities was initiated in this very region in the 9-10th cc.