Best In Georgia

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Photograph by . Over the past decade, buildings in Tbilisi have undergone much transformation, such as Rezo Gabriadze’s old puppet theater in the heart of the historic Old Town, which was completed in 2011. Gabriadze, a Georgian national treasure, designed the crooked clock tower complete with encrusted handmade tiles, a pomegranate tree sprouting from its roof and a gold-winged angel that strikes the hours. The small puppet theatre inside the tower holds 80 seats and has gained the respect and recognition of international audiences with productions such as ‘The Battle of Stalingrad’. Gabriadze was born in Kutaisi in what was then Soviet Georgia. He had lived his whole life under Soviet rule, and the lack of intellectual freedom was a continual hindrance to his artistic expression. According to interviews with Gabriadze, puppets became a surreptitious way to achieve a greater degree of artistic independence and a way to tell dramatic stories without drawing too much attention from his more authoritarian critics.
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