20/06/2026 – 20/09/2026,

Zauri Matikashvili

, Kunsthalle Münster

The Kunsthalle Münster is pleased to present the first institutional solo exhibition by Zauri Matikashvili, providing an insight into the work of the Georgian artist, who has lived in Germany since 2003. Both older works and a new production will be shown. Matikashvili's films are usually dedicated to individuals, groups of people or places. He usually encounters strangers in his films and allows them to share their lives with him for a while, sometimes only for a brief moment. He is fascinated by the unpredictable and surprising moments in his encounters with the people he meets, their thoughts, desires, wishes and opinions. And it is precisely these moments that he shares with us.

Against the backdrop of current social developments, a democracy under pressure, the confrontation with increasing populism and a general political shift to the right, increasing social inequalities as well as a shift away from social politics, Zauri Matikashvili's films seem to have a special urgency. He turns people who usually receive little attention into protagonists and focuses on minorities. He shares stories that take place beyond the majority society and that urgently need to be heard, addressing topics such as segregation, racism and increasing repression from different perspectives. With films, performances and sculptures, he asks how people's everyday lives are linked to power and resistance, how societies function in detail—or not.

Zauri Matikashvili (born in Kvareli, Georgia) lives and works in Münster and Amsterdam. He studied fine arts at the Kunstakademie Münster and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In his films and performances, he questions the socio-cultural and political contexts of different societies and nations that shape the construction of identity in individual realities. He is particularly interested in how narratives and images create community. His works often focus on people who otherwise receive little attention. His work oscillates between observation, testimony, (media) creation and deliberate provocation. Matikashvili's works have been shown at the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster (2025), at Het Documentaire Paviljoen , Amsterdam (2024), at Antimatter Media Art in Victoria (Canada, 2023), at By Art Matters, Hangzhou (2023), at Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam (2023), at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2022), at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2022), at the Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof (2021), at the Münster Film Festival (2021), at the HMKV, Dortmund (2021), at Atelier No. 63 at PACT Zollverein, Essen (2020) and at the Philara Collection in cooperation with Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf (2020), the Theater im Pumpenhaus, Münster (2018), Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017) and Kunstverein Gelsenkirchen (2016). Between 2022 and 2024, he was Artist in Residence at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, having previously held residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris (2022) and at PACT Zollverein in Essen (2021). In 2025 he received the KUNSTFONDS scholarship.

Curator: Merle Radtke