Sophio Medoidze

I am a London-based artist and filmmaker born in the USSR and brought up in the Republic of Georgia. I work across film, photography, writing and sculpture. For a time I worked anonymously as Clara Emigrand collective, examining political conflict through a feminist lens and disseminating my work outside the gallery circuit. My work is marked by precarity and explores the poetic potential of uncertainty. A desire for community (both actual and imaginary) drives my mythopoetic narratives and processes of subverting traditional ethnographic forms through imagination, relatedness and humour. My films often start out as documentaries before expanding into more hybrid forms, in order to disrupt viewer’s expectations of both cinematic techniques and exotic landscape.
My filmmaking method is democratic and elevatory, it has a strong collaborative element. Over the past five years I have been working closely with the nomadic Tush community in North-east Georgia - Tusheti Trilogy is one outcome of that process. I have recently completed my experimental feature Let us Flow, over the past two decades I directed numerous short films (Jackals anddrones, Children and language, Black Sea is really Black) that have been exhibited and screened worldwide, including at Tate Modern, OUTPOST Gallery, Paris Internationale, CAC Brétigny, LUX London, Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Serpentine Cinema, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Berwick film festival, Kasseler Dokfest, EMAF, Short film festival Oberhausen and others.
I received BA in film from Georgian State University of Theatre and Film (2001), I hold MA in Fine Art Photography from London College of Communication (2005) and MFA from Goldsmiths College (2016). In 2019 I was a recipients of Projections Commissions at Tyneside Cinema, in 2018 I was awarded two development awards at Lo Schermo dell’arte (Florence). I am a 2023 guest artist at Le Cyclop de Jean Tinguely (Île-de-France).
My works are distributed by LUX.




CV

Education
2016                            MFA in Fine Art (Studio practice), Goldsmiths, University of London
2005                            MA in Fine Art Photography, London College of Communication, UAL
2001                            BA in Film, Georgian National Institute of Theatre and Cinema, (TAFU)

Solo Exhibitions and Screenings
2023                             New film commission, Le Cyclop, Milly-la-Forêt, France
2022                             Sophio Medoidze: Kotori, Tate Modern, Southbank, London
                                     Artificial Sleep (Her her her her her her her HER), OUTPOST Gallery, UK                             
2021                             Sophio Medoidze, In focus (curated by Adam Pugh), Intersección, A coruna, Galicia
2020                             Sophio Medoidze: Jackals and Drones, LUX London, UK
2019                             Xitana, Projections Commissions, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle (and touring to UK cinemas)
2018                             Sophio Medoidze, AB-JOY,  Serpentine Cinema (Serpentine Gallery), Peckhamplex, London
2010                             Sophio Medoidze & Tank.tv, MRA projects space, London
2008                             Laboratory For The Future, Swiss Cottage Gallery, London

Group Exhibitions and Screenings
2023                            Tusheti Trilogy at Le Cyclop by Jean Tinguely, Milly-la-Forêt, France
                                    Let us Flow, New Cinema Awards, Berwick Film and Media Arts festival, UK
2022                            Let us Flow (Part one), Kassel Documentary film and video festival, Germany
                                    Black Sea is really black, Liquid Structures, Batumi, Georgia 
                                    Drück nur auf die Klinke, Jägerschere Gallery for Contemporary Art, Germany
2021                            Paris Internationale, duo presentation with Melike Kara, LC Queisser, Paris, Fr
                                    Bastard Sun, Oxygen Biennial of Contemporary Arts, Tbilisi, Georgia
                                    Scallops #1, a collaboration between Ermes Ermes & LC Queisser, Vienna
2020                            Sâr Dubnotal
, curated by Damien Delille and Céline Poulin, CAC Brétigny, France
                                    Three, four trees, E.A. Shared space, Tbilisi, Georgia
                                    Desire Night, IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
                                    Three positions with E.A. Shared space, Contemporary Istanbul, Turkey
2019                            Long Story Short (Part of Pirosmani Exhibition), Foundation Vincent van Gogh, Arles
                                    Hotel Europa, Open Space (Part of Tbilisi art fair), Tbilisi
                                    Projections touring programme, HOMEmcr, Hyde Park Picture House, Plymouth arts cinema,
                                    Watershed, Exeter Phoenix and others
                                    Printed Matter’s LA art book fair, with Danarti zine, Los Angeles
                                    Sergei Paradjanov: Reminiscence, Close Up Cinema, London
2018                            Jackals and Drones: Chronicles of A summer, In focus, Festival Scope, online
2017                            Love among the Artists, invited by Laure Prouvost, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland
2016                            MFA final year show, Laure Grove Baths, Goldsmiths, London
                                    Georgian arthouse cinema, Veto Films, B-movie cinema, Hambur
2015                            EX(C)IT(e), Sixtyeight Institute, Copenhagen (two person)
                                    Black sea is really black, Best video awards, Avanca film festival, Aveiro
                                    Art Wall, curated by Wato Tsereteli (CCA Tbilisi), Tbilisi
2013                            We are only in it for Money, Princess Alice, London
2012                            Westworld at Xero, Kline, Coma, London
2010                            All That Glitters is not Institution,  Whitechapel Gallery, London
                                    This Is Not a Gateway, Hanbury Hall, London
                                    Artist’s film and video, 2nd Georgian Film Festival, Riverside studios, London
                                    After Paradjanov: Artists' film and video from Georgia, Arnolfini, Bristol
                                    After Paradjanov: Artists film and video from Georgia, Pushkin House, London
2009                            22nd Instants video, Qattan Foundation, Ramallah
                                    Interzone/City, Galerija Galzenica, Zagreb
2008                            Salon 08 awards, VINEspace Gallery, Vyner Street, London
                                    Contemporary Georgian Photography, F Gallery, Kaunas
2006                            Artconcept, Festival of conceptual art, St Petersburg
2005                            MFA Photography degree show, Well Galleries, London college of printing
                                    Insomnia (Part of the Refugee Week), Oxo Tower, South Bank, London

Nominations and Awards
2023                             Berwick New Cinema Award for Let us Flow
2022                             Georgian National Film Centre, Documentary film funding
                                     Longlisted for Derek Jarman award
2021                             Arts Council England Project Grants
2020                             Longlisted for Derek Jarman award
                                     Elephant Trust project grant
2019                             Longlisted for Arts foundation award (Experimental film)
                                     Artists’ roundtable with On&For (Auguste Orts), Brussels
                                     Longlisted for Derek Jarman award
                                     Shortlisted for FLAMIN productions round 8
                                     Projections Commissions, Tyneside cinema, Newcastle
                                     Feature Expanded development and SUBti awards, Lo Schermo dell’arte and HOMEer
                                     (Jury formed by Andrea Lissoni, Hila Peleg and Anna Lena Vaney)

Talks and Lectures
2022                            C-MAP Seminar, MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
                                    Artist talk, Conditions studios, Croydon, London
                                    Artist talk, Goldsmiths MFA Fine Art, London
2021                            Visiting lecturer, London College of Communication, UAL
2019                            Jury member for Projections Commissions, Newcastle
                                    Visiting lecturer, Richmond American University, London                 
2014                            Visiting Tutor, BA Fine Art, Camberwell College of Arts, London

Curatorial Projects
2009                             Artists’ film and video from Georgia, co-curated with Laure Prouvost and TANK.Tv
                                     2nd Georgian film festival, curator of artists’ cinema, Riverside studios, London

Publications
2015                             Great Amnesiac and Other Stories, CE publishing, London (*self-published)

Selected Press  
                                   Let Us Flow: this mesmerising Georgian documentary combines the personal with the mythopoetic,
                                   Sight and Sound, BFI
                                   A conversation between Millie Norman and Sophio Medoidze, OUTPOST Gallery
                                   Arthouse films and dark comedy, Matt Janney, The Calvert Journal
                                   What I am looking for is where the lines converge, LUX
                                   Projections Commissions at Tyneside Cinema, Ben Eastham, ArtReview
                                   Mike Sperlinger on ‘Xitana’, online and print publication
                                   Sophio Medoidze in conversation with Maria Palacios Cruz, LUX
                                   Jackals and Drones, videos by Sophio Medoidze, Mackinnon-Little, TANK Magazine
                                   Twelve woman gone missing, S. Obolashvili, Forbes Georgia
                                   Tbilisi, Roses from the rubble, HG Master, ArtAsiaPacific
                                   The Lovers, Danarti Magazine, Issue 5, Kunsthalle Zurich
                                   Interview with Sophio Medoidze, O Rukhadze, Radio Liberty/Free Europe
                                   Interview with Sophio Medoidze, Radio Gipa, Tbilisi
                                   Educational Changes, Sh McGregor, Huffington Post
                                   The Year in Pictures, Axis Magazine
                                   Olympic Art attack, F Brooks, Hackney Citizen
                                   Interview with Sophio Medoidze, Radio 101 Zagreb, 
                                                                            Portfolio Request