Former Municipal Swimming Pool Claimed

Location : Imereti Photo Credits: Irina Kochak Former Swimming Pool. Early 1980-s. Author : Medzmariashvili with participation of Demur Basheleishvili.  The monumental composition was made up of six equal-sized sections on the basin’s land. (Medzmariashvili done it, with help from D. Basheleishvili.) Sports were a popular motif in the Soviet mosaic tradition. Sports became the USSR’s cult and ideological heart, the cornerstone of a new country in need of its own superheroes. And the topic of swimming pools was one of the most popular among the art community’s representatives at the time. Muralists frequently showed youthful, muscular, gorgeous swimmers breaking the waves in the design of swimming pools. The unsaid norm did not apply to Georgian monumental art. Nonetheless, Georgian monumentalism frequently used maritime themes to decorate swimming pools. This is not surprising given that Georgia is a country in the Black Sea region. As a result, in such mosaics, the observer is frequently presented directly with traditional marine figures and qualities, which are commonly transferred from mythology. The most prevalent are amazing images of Poseidon, Nereids (mermaids), and other sea creatures. There are pictures related to the Georgian mythological heritage, such as figures from the ancient Greek cycle of the Argonauts. This fusion of legendary history and present reality lends Georgian mosaics with a sporting subject distinct independence from their chronological setting. As a result, the iconography of such works is aesthetically similar to that of ancient murals in which the sports motif was not detached from the context of ritual religious activities. This fusion of legendary history and present reality lends Georgian mosaics with a sporting subject distinct independence from their chronological setting. As a result, the iconography of such works is aesthetically similar to that of ancient murals in which the sports motif was not detached from the context of ritual religious activities. Project is co-financed by the Polish development cooperation program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland