On a sultry late summer night, in a horseshoe-shaped club cantilevered over the Mtkvari River that cuts Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, in two, the artist and drag performer Andro Dadiani was belting out the last bars of his aria act a cappella.
Wearing a sweeping ball skirt the same shade of blue as the European Union flag, and a mask made of his own hair, Dadiani was headlining what the Drag Ball organization had said may be the last of its club series in Georgia. But for the overflow crowd, studded with the country’s leading artists and designers, the evening signified something more ominous: potentially a last gasp for Georgia’s rich contemporary art and cultural landscape.
Georgia, a former Soviet republic of nearly 3.7 million people, the birthplace of Stalin and fixture of the Silk Road, punches well above its weight in visual art, cinema, literature, fashion and music. Internationally known figures include Demna Gvasalia, the creative director of Balenciaga, the novelist Nino Haratischwili and the filmmaker Salomé Jashi.
Elene Abashidze has already decided to shutter her gallery and art magazine. PEN Georgia, a free expression group, is prepared to close if the ruling Georgian Dream party stays in power after parliamentary elections on Saturday. And the director of Tbilisi Pride has announced that the organization will likely shut down.
