22 May Alevtina Kakhidze: “If you don’t teach, you have no connection with reality”


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We visited artist, performer, curator and just a good friend and spoke of many things, including art.

What are you up to?

I continue to work with fashion, and in quite a specific way. Ukrainians miss good things. That is why we are planning to open a store and sell curtains and handkerchiefs.

Great! But handkerchiefs have gone out of fashion…

And you know why? They were replaced with paper napkins. But handkerchiefs simply must exist – for tears, not for snivel. But we don’t want to force or beg anybody to buy them. I don’t really care if my art is actually sold. The important thing is creating it.

There’s always an artist standing behind any piece of art. And it’s impossible to find somebody to speak ill of you. How do you think, why?

Maybe because I don’t consider anyone as my competitor. I just do what I do. And no one speaks ill of Zhanna Kadyrova too.

And speaking of other artists, tell us, do you keep tracking of what everybody else does?

Yes, naturally. Especially of the young.

Knowing your activity, I can’t help but ask how do you find energy for everything?

That’s the problem – not for everything. But I manage to find time for drawing. Actually, I draw very quickly, sometimes I even feel a little embarrassed for not making effort. My husband can reproach me for not housecleaning and not cooking. But it’s not true. I am an excellent cleaner! I even have an idea to create appropriate performance: I can make any chrome-plated tap shine in minutes. And speaking seriously, I wake up very early – at 6-7 am, so I manage to do a lot till 10 am… Usually I write a plan for a week. Establish priorities. For example, teaching is one of my priorities. If you don’t teach, you have no connection with reality. The youth can provide you with clear understanding of current context – and can do it much more quickly than papers.

Can you please tell us about your “Gifts” project?

It’s rather difficult to talk about this project. One day I realized that I got tired from all that happened to me. I made a list of people with whom I fought, had any misunderstandings or insults. I imagined that I would be able to sketch it all – I would write a text, and on the underside I would draw. On my birthday I displayed those drawings-texts on the stage as performance (thanks for this opportunity to the “Closer” art center). The drawings turned out to be quite abstract, and texts – addressed. At this event people I was addressing with my drawings-texts, got marks. Then they could imperceptibly take them home. Only three guests did that. Having created those drawings-texts, I felt truly relieved. And after the performance, at home, I made one more drawing-text, and addressed it myself: “I don’t understand why I can’t become as strong and beautiful as my art”.

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