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Elizabeth I, Queen of England: a legendary figure. An entire era is named after her. The virgin queen, daughter of Henry VIII and his wife Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth, the Protestant, eternal rival of the Catholic Mary Stuart. In Techno Queen, the legendary queens come to life anew—and invite you to dance in the afterlife between Donizetti and techno. Bel canto meets beats—an electro(melo)drama.
Cast
Director: Francesco Micheli
Set and Costumes: Uta Bekaia
Music: Alberto Zanardi, Leona Jacewska
Video: Mariam Songhulashvili
Lighting: Thomas Wendt
Sound: Max-Lukas Hundelshausen
Choreographer: Sophie Haydee Colindres Zühlke
Dramaturge: Saskia Kruse, Olaf Roth
Queen Elizabeth: Yannick Fischer
Maria Stuarda: Iana Aivazian
Anna Bolena: Evgeniya Sotnikova
Elisabetta: Meg Brilleslyper
Enrico/La morte: Zhe Liu
Violine, Akkordeon: Daniela Huber
Kontrabass: Reinhard Schmid
Tänzerinnen: Sophie Haydee Colindres Zühlke, Afra Kleinert, Lea Markgraf, Michelle Sara Munoz
City & Topography Maps: Scenic video projections showing London and Munich utilize stylized geographical data from © OpenStreetMap contributors (osm.org/copyright).
Global earth textures are courtesy of NASA.
3D Models: The heart model is adapted from 'Realistic Human Heart' by neshallads; the feather model from 'High Poly Stylized Feather' by Laurie Annis; the gem models from 'Diamond Gem Shape Set - 1 Collectibles' by brandon_grey; the tree model from 'The Queen Elizabeth oak' by kungphil; and the door model from 'Bath Abbey west door' by danielpett. All are sourced via Sketchfab and used under CC BY 4.0 with modifications made for stage synchronization.
Scientific & Anatomical Assets: Molecular structures are adapted from entries 1A3N, 1BNA, and 1TNV (Drew, Dickerson, Tsukihara, Tame & Vallone) via the RCSB Protein Data Bank.
Typography: Visual title elements utilize the 'Isenheim' typeface designed by Benoît Ferran via Tunera Type Foundry (SIL Open Font License). Secondary text and captions utilize the 'Roboto' typeface developed by Google (Apache License 2.0).
Special Thanks
Additional production tools and real-time network components provided courtesy of Lake Heckaman, SARV, MiniUV, PPPANIK, Elekktronaut, Jascha Seuss, Prismatic, and the TouchDesigner developer community.
©️ Photo: Geoffroy Schied
(projected light, felt, recycled leather, modeling clay, recycled textile, metal)
For Wings of Desire; curated by Hitori Ni at Bassiani, Tbilisi, Georgia
Inspired by the work of women directors from the 1980s and 1990s who explored memory and the past through experimental film, this project utilizes a live video feed directed at a carefully assembled memory box.
Memory is contextual; it exists only through the perspective of the moment of recollection. That is, we insert our present selves into what has happened, and thus memory transforms each time.
Memory is condensed in objects.
Audio: Anaparn Pinpradub
Visuals: Mariam Songhulashvili
Performed at Sateliti
Voices spoken through megaphones are captured, processed in real time, and fed back into the panels, causing them to resonate. The work explores the unstable space between perception and belief. What happens when what we see and hear can no longer be fully trusted? By unsettling sensory certainty, In-Between invites viewers to reflect on how truth is constructed, negotiated, and constantly reshaped.
©️ Goethe-Institut Georgien/ Photo: Giorgi Kolbaia / Video: Shio Khidasheli
Audio: gabiskiriamalia
Visuals: Mariam Songhulashvili
1.0 Performed at Thelema; 2.0 Performed for Tsneva
(Felt bas-relief [200x120cm]; Projected light)
For Silk Armour; curated by __niangi__ (New Media and Experimental Art Platform) at Art House Gori
Audio: gabiskiriamalia
Visuals: Mariam Songhulashvili
Performed at TES Club
“Cactus” is a story about systemic collapse and psychological crisis. The architect’s orderly world—where he is convinced that he controls time (“every second freezes when I press the elevator button”)—collapses within a minute. Panic, chaos, and a series of claustrophobic attacks begin. Opposing this inner chaos is the “cactus” — an object placed deep within the stage, radiating a clean, minimalist, and stable resonance.
It is the collision of rational mind with organic reality — with a sense of time that lies beyond subjective and objective time. It is a story about transformation, which begins only after the total collapse of the modern individual.
Characters and Performers:
The Architect - Giorgi Goderdzishvili (Bass)
Cactus - Christopher Manning (Clarinet, Bass Clarinet)
Composer: Tiko Ghoghoberidze
Librettist: Mindia Arabuli
Design / Video Projection: Mariam Songhulashvili
Costume Designer: Uta Bekaia
Director: Ilia Korkashvili
Sound Director: Lasha Natenadze
Lighting: Achi Arghanashvili
©️ Goethe-Institut Georgien/ Photo: Giorgi Kolbaia/ Video: Shio Khidasheli
gabiskiriamalia is a digital avatar that transforms urban space into a two-dimensional playfield, where street sounds turn into synthetic ones. The visual narrative of “Current” is based on “found footage”. This audio-visual combination tries to render reality non-normative.
Audio: gabiskiriamalia
Visuals: Mariam Songhulashvili
Hand-sewn recycled leather masks by Anna Khmaladze
Performed at Haraki
Memory is contextual; it exists only through the perspective of the moment of recollection. That is, we insert our present selves into what has happened, and thus memory transforms each time.
The act of remembering becomes a form of self-invention - a rebuilding of the self, anew, every time.
Memory is condensed in objects.
Audio: Zeskneli
Visuals: Mariam Songhulashvili
Performed at Tkeshi Festival 2025
Traffic, constant movement, and road noise create a sonic backdrop of everyday life.
These sounds speak of urban tension, overloaded systems/roads, and overwhelmed minds.
Urban Hymn - the main voice: Tbilisi’s traffic.
Background sounds - songs about Tbilisi.
gabiskiriamalias original tracks.
A sound that is heard when these sounds are not.
The visual component of the work combines data that describes the urban space and is publicly available online - essentially, the city’s digital footprint. This includes meteorological, cartographic, satellite, and statistical materials. Such numerical representation of urban space, at first glance, seem entirely detached from the experience of physically being in that space. In order to describe the complex system of the city, to perceive and understand it as a whole, it becomes necessary to identify patterns hidden within the data.
While the sonic element is directly based on the sense of presence in urban space, the visual element enters into a dialogue with it, introducing a digital body - an avatar - into the city’s digital imprint.
Audio: Gabiskiriamalia
Visuals: Mariam Songhulashvili
On or Off. Dissonant or in harmony.
Created with the use of projection mapping on the building of the Goethe Institute of Georgia.
Audio: Anushka Chkheidze
Visuals: Mariam Songhulashvili
Created for the Goethe Institute of Georgia
Audio: Gabiskiriamalia
Visuals: Mariam Songhulashvili
Performed at ‘Borders & Exits’ at Art House Gori
Dedicated to everyone who is lost in the current.
- Text: Mariam Songhulashvili & Mariam Kakhniashvili
- Audio: Found
- Visuals: Mariam Songhulashvili
‘Constantly arriving with new strength, new form, new frequency, it leaves new scratches [or] cracks on your mind.
It has no point of reference, no trajectory of flow, it is simply scattered within you.
At times, it spills over from its course and devours even the boundary that separates “you” from “the other.”
Pain deceives the mind in fog and carries the body along.’
Visually this is illustrated through cellular and microscopic imagery. The processes of separation and unification alternate, till the complete dissassembly into the white void. This loops the work, which in its turn through repetition emphasizes the chronicity.
- Text: prosthetic wings
- Audio: Gabiskiriamalia
- Visuals: Mariam Songhulashvili