Born in 2000 in Rustavi, Georgia, Mariam Abashidze is a visual artist based in Basel. She is currently pursuing an MA in Fine Arts at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design (2024–2026), and received a BA in Visual Art from the Free University of Tbilisi, VA[A]DS (2019–2023).
The object of my research is the factories of Rustavi, polluted air and resulting diseases. My interest in this topic is personal, I grew up in Rustavi, in a family whose five members worked in Rustavi's nitrogen or metallurgical plants for decades. Among them - my grandmother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. In the current discourse on breast cancer, environmental factors are often neglected and overshadowed by the inherent data of a woman's body: age at onset of menstruation, age at first birth, family medical history, alcohol consumption, diet, weight, contraceptives, infertility, abortion, and others. “The main risks that we know of, is simply to be a woman and old age.” Tables and diagrams printed on A4 size office paper are part of the installation. The image of the table is taken from a public document, which originally provided a list of companies registered in Rustavi that are subject to environmental regulations. Factories represent a large part of the list. The original information of the documents is partially or completely removed and replaced with phrases from articles about breast cancer found on the Internet.
