Sophio Medoidze (b. 1978, Tbilisi, Georgia) is a filmmaker and visual artist currently living in London. Her works often emerge from writing and unfold as installations incorporating film, sculpture, photography and text. She studied film in Georgia, at the National Institute of Theatre and Film (TAFU), before emigrating to the UK in 2001.
Centred on depicting her native Georgia, Medoidze’s films are known for their use of innovative audio-visual techniques and improvisation, bridging the personal and the political into subjective and mythopoetic forms of storytelling. She has recently completed her first feature Let us Flow (Vidinot), working with the nomadic Tushetian community in Northeast Georgia. Her films have been shown at the international film festivals including short film festival Oberhausen, EMAF European Media Art festival, 36th Kasseler Dokfest.
Medoidze’s work is marked by precarity and explores the poetic potential of uncertainty. In the early 2000s, when she couldn’t practice due to her immigration status, she invented an imaginary collective, Clara Emigrand, to disseminate her work outside of a gallery context.
Her recent exhibitions and screenings include TATE Modern, OUTPOST Gallery, Paris Internationale, CAC Brétigny, LUX London, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Serpentine Galleries, Close-Up film centre, amongst others. In 2019 she was a recipients of Projections Commissions (Tyneside Cinema).
Her new book, Bastard Sun, is publishing with DISTANZ & KONA Books in October 2023. Medoidze’s films are distributed by LUX, London.
Centred on depicting her native Georgia, Medoidze’s films are known for their use of innovative audio-visual techniques and improvisation, bridging the personal and the political into subjective and mythopoetic forms of storytelling. She has recently completed her first feature Let us Flow (Vidinot), working with the nomadic Tushetian community in Northeast Georgia. Her films have been shown at the international film festivals including short film festival Oberhausen, EMAF European Media Art festival, 36th Kasseler Dokfest.
Medoidze’s work is marked by precarity and explores the poetic potential of uncertainty. In the early 2000s, when she couldn’t practice due to her immigration status, she invented an imaginary collective, Clara Emigrand, to disseminate her work outside of a gallery context.
Her recent exhibitions and screenings include TATE Modern, OUTPOST Gallery, Paris Internationale, CAC Brétigny, LUX London, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Serpentine Galleries, Close-Up film centre, amongst others. In 2019 she was a recipients of Projections Commissions (Tyneside Cinema).
Her new book, Bastard Sun, is publishing with DISTANZ & KONA Books in October 2023. Medoidze’s films are distributed by LUX, London.
LUX
Imdb
MUBI
CV
Education
2016
2005
2001
Solo exhibitions/screenings
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2010
2008
Group exhibitions/screenings
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2010
2009
2008
2006
2005
Nominations/awards
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
Talks/lectures
2022
2021
2019
2014
Curatorial projects
2009
Publications
2023
2015
Selected Press
2016
2005
2001
Solo exhibitions/screenings
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2010
2008
Group exhibitions/screenings
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2010
2009
2008
2006
2005
Nominations/awards
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
Talks/lectures
2022
2021
2019
2014
Curatorial projects
2009
Publications
2023
2015
Selected Press
MFA in fine art (Studio practice), Goldsmiths, University of London
MFA in fine art (Photography), London College of Communication, UAL
BA in film, Georgian National Institute of Theatre and Cinema (TAFU)
Ciné Lumière, Institut Français, London, UK
Sophio Medoidze, Le Cyclop, Milly-la-Forêt, France (Exhibition+Performance)
Sophio Medoidze, LUF+Xitana, Beursschouwburg, Brussels, Belgium
Sophio Medoidze: Kotori, Tate Modern, Southbank, London, UK
Artificial Sleep (Her her her her her her her HER), OUTPOST Gallery, Norwich, UK
Sophio Medoidze, In focus, Intersección, A coruna, Galicia, Spain
Sophio Medoidze: Jackals and Drones, LUX London, UK
Projections Commission, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle (& touring to UK cinemas)
Sophio Medoidze, AB-JOY, Serpentine Cinema (Serpentine Galleries), London, UK
Sophio Medoidze & Tank.tv, MRA projects space, London, UK
Laboratory For the Future, Swiss Cottage Gallery, London, UK
Anniversary show, LC Queisser, Tbilisi, Georgia
EMAF European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, Germany
Xitana at KinoBox, Tromsø, Norway
Nothing good lasts, Haus N Athen (Off site), Athens, Greece
Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (LUX Distribution Screening), Germany
Murmures en fractales, Le Cyclop by Jean Tinguely, Milly-la-Forêt, France
BFMAF Berwick Film and Media Arts festival, Berwick, UK
39th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Germany
Liquid Structures festival, Batumi, Georgia
Drück nur auf die Klinke, Jägerschere, Germany
Paris Internationale, duo presentation with Melike Kara, LC Queisser, Paris
Oxygen Biennial of Contemporary Arts, Tbilisi, Georgia
Scallops #1, a collaboration between Ermes Ermes & LC Queisser, Vienna
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, E.A. shared space, Contemporary Istanbul, Turkey
Long Story Short, Foundation VincentVan Gogh, Arles, France
Hotel Europa, Open space (part of the Tbilisi art fair), Tbilisi
Projections touring , HOMEmcr, Hyde Park Picture House, Plymouth arts cinema,
Watershed, Exeter Phoenix, UK
Printed Matter art book fair with Danarti, Los Angeles
Sergei Paradjanov: Reminiscence, Close Up film centre, London
In focus, Festival Scope Pro (Online)
Love among the Artists, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland
MFA final year show, Laure Grove Baths, Goldsmiths, London
Georgian arthouse cinema, Veto Films, B-movie cinema, Hamburg
EX(C)IT(e), Sixtyeight Institute, Copenhagen (two person)
Best video awards, Avanca film festival, Aveiro, Portugal
Art Wall, curated by Wato Tsereteli (CCA Tbilisi), Tbilisi, Georgia
We are only in it for Money, Princess Alice pub, London
Westworld, Xero, Kline, Coma, London, UK
All That Glitters is not Institution, Whitechapel Gallery, London
This Is Not a Gateway, Hanbury Hall, London, UK
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
22nd Instants video, Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, Palestine
Interzone/City, Galerija Galzenica, Zagreb, Croatia
Salon 08 awards, VINEspace Gallery, Vyner Street, London
Contemporary Georgian Photography, F Gallery, Kaunas, Lithuania
Art concept, festival of conceptual art, St Petersburg, Russia
MFA Photography degree show, Well Galleries, London college of printing, London
Insomnia (Part of the Refugee week), Oxo Tower, Southbank, London
New Cinema Award, BFMAF Berwick film festival
Longlisted for Derek Jarman award
Georgian National film centre, documentary funding
Longlisted for Derek Jarman award
Arts Council England, project grants
Longlisted for Derek Jarman award
Elephant trust, project grant
Longlisted for the 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/HOME Manchester
(Jury formed by Andrea Lissoni, Hila Peleg and Anna Lena Vaney)
C-MAP Seminar, MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Artist talk, Conditions studios, Croydon, London
Artist talk, Goldsmiths MFA fine art, London
Visiting lecturer, London College of Communication, UAL
Jury member for Projections commission, Newcastle
Visiting lecturer, Richmond American University, London
Visiting Tutor, BA in fine art, Camberwell College of Arts, London
Artists’ film and video from Georgia, curated with Laure Prouvost and TANK.tv
2nd Georgian film festival, artist’s film, Riverside studios, London
Bastard Sun, published by Distanz Verlag, Berlin and Kona books, Tbilisi
Great Amnesiac and other stories, published by Clara Emingrand (*self-published)
Let Us Flow: this mesmerising Georgian documentary, 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, online
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, online
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
Interview with Sophio Medoidze, O Rukhadze, Radio Liberty/Free Europe
Interview with Sophio Medoidze, Radio Gipa, Tbilisi
Educational Changes, Sh McGregor, Huffington Post, UK
The Year in Pictures, Axis Magazine, UK
Olympic Art attack, F Brooks, Hackney Citizen, UK
Interview with Sophio Medoidze, Radio 101 Zagreb, Croatia
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