Two nations spanning Europe
British Georgian Society (BGS) aims to bring closer together people in Great Britain and Georgia and develop greater understanding by providing a platform for events in interesting venues on a wide range of Georgia-related subjects such as art, film, music, culture, archaeology, history and contemporary events. Since it started in 2004, BGS has established very firm links with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Georgian Embassy in the UK and has strong connections in the diplomatic, cultural and business fields.
If you are interested in finding out more about one of the World's most fascinating and beautiful countries, full of ancient wonder and contemporary contradictions, famous as the cradle of wine and the home of the Golden Fleece, please join BGS and come to one of our events.
Talk and Book Launch of 'Unveiling Vazha Pshavela' on 1 March 2019
Unveiling Vazha Pshavela
Stories and Artworks Inspired by the Poet
1 March 2019, 18.45 - 21.00
Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP
Asia House, the British Georgian Society and the Embassy of Georgia to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland present Talk and Book Launch followed by Poetry Reading and Georgian Polyphonic Singing, inspired by the 19th-20th century renowned Georgian poet Vazha Pshavela.
The new publication Unveiling Vazha Pshavela is the most comprehensive book to date of the poet's works in English. The publication is initiated by Georgian/British artist Andro Semeiko as part of his project investigating notions of self and motherland - through landscape, ethnography, and language of Vazha Pshavela. The poems in the book have been selected to illustrate the poet's powerful, tragic, often Shakespearean force, as well as the development of his ideas and approach to nature, very relevant to ecological politics in the world today. They have been translated by Donald Rayfield OBE. The book includes specially commissioned works by the contemporary Georgian writer Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili, Georgian fashion designer Manana Antelidze, and the artists Leonid Semeiko and Andro Semeiko, which give a many-sided vision of the poet’s work.
- The event will be opened by the Ambassador of Georgia to the UK, HE Tamar Beruchashvili.
- Donald Rayfield will give a talk about the poet’s work followed by a discussion about the book with Andro Semeiko.
- A surprise distinguished guest will read selected poems from the book.
- Maspindzeli Choir will sing Georgian polyphonic songs.
- The artworks featured in the publication will be on display in the gallery.
- The book will be available to purchase during the event.
- Complimentary Georgian Wine and Canapés will be served to the guests.
Publication of the book was made possible by the generous support from Georgian National Book Center and Arts Council England.
General Admission: £10, Concession (60+): £8, Students: FREE
If you are unable to attend the launch but would like to purchase the book, you can find it on Andro Semeiko’s website: https://www.androsemeiko.com/vazha or from Foyles, Waterstones, Amazon and many art-specialised bookshops in the U.K.
2018 Annual Rustaveli Day and AGM - 27th November 6pm at the Royal Asiatic Society
The BGS Rustaveli Day and Annual General Meeting will be held at 6pm on the 27th November 2018 at at the Royal Asiatic Society.
Introduction by David Gigauri (British Georgian Society)
The British-Georgian actress Miki Iveria – the story of Princess Gayane Mickeladze
A talk by her nephew Dr. Henry Sanford.
The presentation will consist of extracts & photos from the memoirs of Gayane Mickeladze, a British-Georgian actress who came to England after the death in Menton of her father, Prince Iverico Mickeladze. Her family were hunted by the Bolsheviks, but escaped against all odds. Betrayed by a trusted Chinese servant, then rescued by a Jewish family, she was present at some of the pivotal moments in the history of the 20th century. When a child, Gayane was in the middle of the bombardment of Feodosia by German warships, attached to the Turkish navy, that brought Turkey into the first world war. Her Father’s encounter with Rasputin is extraordinary. Was football at her home the first to be played in the Russian Empire? Her account of the voyage on the SS Saratoff and ensuing boarding by Georgians and fight at sea is perhaps an unrecorded event. Her Father, who had been the youngest judge in the Empire, teamed up with a Circassian brigand to run arms to General Wrangel’s army in the Crimea. In England he met Churchill at the Central Asian Society having been entrusted with a plan to prise Georgia away from the USSR by making it a British Protectorate. Princess Gayane’s passion was acting and Maltese dogs. Under a stage name Miki Iveria, her career in theatre encompassed several decades and dozens of supporting roles in the UK. Iveria made her screen debut in The Adventures of Tartu and went on to play in over 30 films.
Medieval Georgian Romance The Man in a Panther-Skin & Shakespeare's Late Plays
Book presentation by Prof. Elguja Khintibidze.
Prof Khintibidze, Head of the Institute of the History of Georgian Literature at Tbilisi State University, will present his new book, translated into English in 2018. It’s an amazing story and a brilliant piece of academic research which aims to establish, for the first time, a fascinating connection between Elizabethan theatre and the great Georgian national 12th century epic. Based on the most rigorous textual analysis, he shows how remarkable similarities in theme, setting, plot, action and character - way beyond any mere coincidence of archetypes – demonstrate the clear influence of the Georgian epic upon both Shakespeare and Beaumont & Fletcher, particularly in Cymbeline, A King and No King and Philaster.
The event will be followed by Georgian wine & canapes by Tamada Restaurant.
