We arrived in Kutaisi in July right into a hot pit. It was this quiet, melting, merciless heat that transforms my brain into a jellyfish. Such heat makes me dumb, immobile, incapable of any action or even a thought. We realised at once that we have to go to the mountains to find some fresh cool air. We knew little about the Svaneti region but after a quick research realised it was the place to be. Located in the highest north-west part of the country, in the Caucasus mountains, it promised to be a salvation from the burning mainland.
We took a train to Zugdidi and then a "marshrutka" to Mestia, the main town in Upper Svaneti. "Marshrutka" is a soviet DIY transport system, using old mini vans. Going in this van is an exercise of trust. Zooming at high speed in this metal unbreakable vessel through serpentine roads, often broken by falling rocks and worn-out by heavy trucks and rain, we surrender to this inevitable experience. A soothing feeling of trust is spreading in my body. I trust the driver, with a cigarette in his teeth and an old beret on his head. I trust the road, the steel skeleton of the van, the mountains, our decision to take this adventure.
We start to learn more about Svaneti. We learn that Swans live in these mountains for thousands of years. At the beginning of the Christian era they preferred an alliance with Persia over Greeks. This connection with Iranian culture intrigues me and it's something I want to explore further. We learn about Swan legends which abound in stories telling how Swans acted as one to rebel against all sorts of encroachments of the Romans, Byzantines, Imperial Russia and Soviet Union... I am fascinated that Swans love their independence and freedom and relate to their rebellious spirit. To me it feels like they refuse to betray their Self, to be corrupted by the "benefits" promised by delusional imperial ambitions of their neighbours from different times...
This is the one thing about Svaneti that I realised at once as we came here, one that inspires this project. While there I have a strange and pleasant feeling that I am not in any particular country, as a political entity, as a modern country-nation. I do not feel that I am caught in a particular moment in history (a difficult one though, where more than 20% of Georgia is occupied by its enormous insatiable neighbour). In Svaneti I feel being in a land, a place, a community that are united by something other than political states have to offer.
During our first stay in Mestia the idea for this project started to take shape. "Du côté de chez Swans" is an artistic and anthropological investigation into the geist of this place and the identity of its people. The name for the project is inspired by an oeuvre of Marcel Proust and it is translated into English as "Swans' way". And this is what we have been exploring during our expeditions: the paths of this land, Swans' ways of living and being, their ways of engaging with each other and with their heritage.
"Du côté de chez Swans" is a series of mini documentaries, short anthropological and poetic sketches, that would tell about Swans' ordinary everyday life, their spirituality, beliefs and mythology. For me, this journey starts in Mestia and then leads to Ushguli, a community of medieval villages located at the edge of Upper Svaneti, high in the Enguri gorge.