In the late 1800s Italian mountaineer and photographer Vittorio Sella travelled to Svaneti, then Georgia’s most remote mountain region, portraying the spectacular mountains of the Great Caucasus’ range as well as their proud and noble inhabitants. The multimedia exhibition “In the footsteps of Sella – Svaneti 130 years on” retrace Sella’s journey with the aim of unveil how both mountains and people have confronted the passing of time.
The display opened on June 7th, 2019 at the Svaneti Museum in Mestia and it will run through late July, 2019. It will showcase Sella’s photographs and travel notes next to images and videos by me and text by Italian journalist Monica Ellena, who curated the project, with the purpose of delving into Svaneti’s life today.
As climate change melts glaciers, negligence erodes centuries-old rock towers, and tourists bustle on its slopes, is this still a close-knit society where traditions rule? What is the Svaneti of Sella’s times that still lives 130 years on?
Writer Monica and I travelled to Mazeri to meet the descendants of Bebkeri Dadeshkeliani who opened his mansion to Sella in 1890, attended funeral banquets whose rituals have not changed since Sella recorded them from Mazeri to Ushguli, talked to hay mowers and hunters, tracked down Sella’s exact point of view in villages and churches to show if and how they have changed over the decades.
Vittorio Sella's photographs of mountains around the world are regarded as some of the finest ever made, but it was the Caucasus that conquered his heart. In three journeys – in 1889, 1890 and 1896 – Sella froze on coated glass plates Svaneti’s peaks and glaciers, but he also turned his eyes and lenses to its people. The mountains and people’s indomitable spirit were good enough a subject, yet the added value of Sella’s work is a passionate determination. Travelling on trains, horses, and feet he covered hundreds of kilometres with bulky, heavy, and yet fragile equipment. He modified pack saddles and rucksacks to allow the glass plates to be transported safely.
His photos remain the most comprehensive visual document of the region before the Soviet Union and are still used today by geographers and historians to understand how Svaneti looked like in the late 1800s.
In recognition of his photographic documentation in 1890 the London-based Royal Geographical Society granted Sella the prestigious Murchison Award, a prize the London-based foundation has been granting annually since 1882. In 1980 Georgian renowned documentary film maker Revaz Tabukashvili made a film about Sella and acquired scores of images which were then donated to the National Archives of Georgia. In Biella, his hometown where he died in 1943, the Sella Foundation still preserves his vast photographic archive.
Svans have reciprocated Sella’s tribute, naming after him a street in Mestia and a peak on the Caucasus range.
The exhibition is funded by the Italian embassy in Tbilisi, in collaboration with the National Archive of Georgia, the Georgian National Museum, the Ministry of Culture and the Kolga Photo Festival.
(Words by Monica Ellena)
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