Caucasian Memory Game
2006
Medium: Performance
Project by: Khinkali Juice
Cooperation with: Est-Ouest festival, Die, France
This performance was made especially for the festival Est-Ouest, which was organized by the city of Die in the south of France to show the culture from the Caucasus. Visual artists, performers, writers, translators, and musicians were invited to present their region. This memory game used real people instead of cards. Twelve people from the Caucasus region were asked to participate: two Georgian, two Armenian, and two Azeri men and women. These participants had a map of the Caucasus attached to their backs, and nationality tags attached to their fronts. Visitors of the festival had to play by telling which people had to turn and they had to guess which two were Georgian women, Armenian men, etc.
We were playing with the idea that within the Caucasus we have so many conflicts and think we vary a great deal. When seen from France, all people from the Caucasus probably look the same and have much more in common than we would like to admit.