Among Us marks the opening of Matiz Gallery’s renovated space, designed in collaboration with bureau mud.

This inaugural program brings together paintings by Georgian artist Nina Akhobadze, the presentation of Danarti_zine —a women-led independent publication from Tbilisi—and a roundtable facilitated by Aea: Culture Initiative. Nata Tatunashvili, co-founder of Aea, will moderate the roundtable, which will explore independent initiatives predominantly founded and led by female collectives. Ani Chorgolashvili, co-founder and editor of Danarti_zine, will share their working process and the main challenges faced while developing the project.

This collaborative initiative harnesses the power of art as a medium for fostering belonging and dialogue, emphasizing the importance of small, self-organized gestures as foundational elements for broader networks of solidarity and exchange. Alongside these, works by artists from Europe and Latin America expand the conversation beyond two cities, reminding us that what unites Tbilisi, Barcelona, and Latin American contexts are shared struggles around migration, small communities, and women-led initiatives. This collaboration proposes a method: to use art as a tool for belonging and dialogue, and to treat small, self-organized gestures as seeds for larger networks of solidarity and exchange.

The show centers on a critical question: How do we rebuild a sense of belonging when migration disrupts it? Through art, these women explore identity, displacement, and resilience from feminist, transnational, and community-based perspectives.

Among Us is one of the first intercultural actions of BASPcr (Barri de l’Art Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera)—a pilot project by Matiz Gallery that seeks to activate immigrant narratives through artistic interventions. The exhibition will include artist talks, guided visits, and participatory activities aimed at building bridges between cultures and shared migrant experiences in Barcelona, a city where 45% of the neighborhood’s population is foreign-born.

Matiz Gallery and BASPcr invite you to join this cultural encounter, expanding the role of art beyond aesthetics and transforming it into a space for care, remembrance, and transformation.

Nina Akhobadze

Portrait of Nina Akhobadze. Photo: Michael Schulte

(b. 1997, Samtredia, Georgia)

Nina Akhobadze is a contemporary painter currently based in Vienna, Austria. She studied Painting and Graphic Arts at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (2015–2019) under Oleg Timchenko and is presently continuing her studies at the University of Art and Design Linz under Anne Speier.

Her work has been presented in international exhibitions including Vienna Contemporary (2024), Schlossmuseum Linz (2024), and the Tbilisi Art Fair (2024).

Akhobadze’s artistic practice is grounded in an intimate, intuitive approach where color and texture enter into a continuous, evolving dialogue. Working primarily in oil on large-format canvases, she explores painting as a physical and emotional process. Her layered surfaces are rich in depth and vibrancy, engaging viewers in a sensory encounter rather than a figurative narrative.

By avoiding figuration, Akhobadze emphasizes the immediacy of material and gesture. Her textured and fluid compositions embody both freedom and ritual, channeling the emotional and psychological states of daily life into abstract visual forms. Each painting becomes an immersive and multilayered experience, inviting viewers into a direct dialogue with the artist’s process and the emotions it contains.

DANARTI_ZINE

Danarti is an independent publication series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, focusing on art and culture. Each issue features commissioned works from artists and cultural professionals around a specific theme, along with selected classical works that are republished or translated. The name “Danarti” means “enclosure” in Georgian, representing responses to events or social and political issues. Inspired by the self-publishing traditions of Samizdat in the USSR, Danarti operates in an irregular and independent manner. Since November 2016 Danarti is online and operates both online and in print.

Danarti is presented in both local and international libraries, bookshops, and institutions such as Metropolitan Museum Watson Library (US); MoMA Archives and Library (US), Telavi Public Library (GE), Kunsthalle Zurich (CH); librairie Yvon Lamb (FR); Kona books (GE); Books People Places (DE) and so on.

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Ana Chorgolashvili
Ana Chorgolashvili (b. 1986, Tbilisi) is an architecture researcher, curator, and editor. She holds a Master’s degree in Art History from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and is co-founder and editor of Danarti. Her projects span art, architecture, and publishing, with key roles in the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, the research initiative Ubani – Tbilisi Cityscape Research Center, and Community Radio Tbilisi. She has also authored the Tbilisi Architecture Map (2019) and co-curated projects such as Birzhastation (2020) and Performance Days Tbilisi (2020). Through her editorial and curatorial practice, she engages critically with Georgia’s urban, social, and cultural transformations.

Aea: Culture initiative

Aea: Culture Initiative is a transdisciplinary laboratory for émigré creatives, centered on the female perspective. Founded in Paris, it brings together over 60 women from nine countries — spanning visual arts, architecture, design, urbanism, education, media, and curatorial practices. The initiative emerged in response to global crises and forced displacement, offering émigré creatives a space to pause, rethink their experiences, and rebuild them through collective intelligence and collaborative making. Aea emphasizes non-hierarchical, polycentric, and process-driven approaches, cherishing small details, embracing uncertainty, and valuing imagination and warmth. Its projects (2024–2026) are set to unfold across France, Portugal, Serbia, Georgia, the UAE, Oman, and Indonesia, focusing on two central themes: Home and Meet the Others.

Founders
Aea was founded by Nata Tatunashvili and Natalia Mastalerzh, architects and cultural practitioners who are also the founders of NWDS, an international architectural bureau with an office in Tbilisi. Together, they envisioned Aea as a platform to support émigré creatives — including themselves — in re-establishing a sense of belonging through collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and a distinctly female perspective. Their leadership is complemented by an international core team of professionals, including strategists, artists, and consultants, who extend AEA’s reach across cultural and geographic boundaries.

Bureau mud

bureau mud is a creative practice founded in Barcelona in 2025 by Maria Uporova. The studio specializes in art direction within the architectural field, designing bespoke spaces and experiences that merge interior architecture with creative direction. With an artistic approach at its core, bureau mud develops projects from visual concept to execution, always focused on crafting thoughtfully designed environments that balance functionality and expression. Although based in Barcelona, the practice works internationally, bridging architecture, design, and art.

Maria Uporova
Maria Uporova is an architect and creative director with over five years of experience at Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura before establishing bureau mud. At Bofill’s studio, she contributed to projects such as ECO Hotel (Portugal), Vallformosa Winery (Spain), and international commissions in Albania and the US. She has also collaborated on independent projects, including The Fissure in Iceland (shortlisted in the YAC competition) with Juan Ramirez and Robert Mikaielian. Through bureau mud, she channels her architectural background into art direction and interior design, with a vision rooted in artistic sensitivity, narrative-driven design, and global reach.