Interview with: Mari Babaevi
August 2025
Mari Babaevi is a Georgian visual artist and designer of Azerbaijani descent. A graduate of the Faculty of Visual Arts, Architecture and Design at the Free University of Tbilisi, she is going to pursue Fashion Design studies at Polimoda in Florence, Italy from October 2025. Mari’s multidisciplinary practice centers around textiles, garments, and mixed media, exploring themes of identity, memory, womanhood, and cultural duality shaped by her experience of living between Georgian and Azerbaijani traditions. Mari uses clothing and textile as conceptual tools to reflect on inherited rituals and social pressures, while reimagining them through a contemporary, often feminist, lens.
She has exhibited both locally and internationally. Her solo exhibition Sugar Cubes was held at Patara Gallery in Tbilisi, and she has taken part in several group shows, including Untold Narratives at the Tbilisi Art Fair (Expo georgia), Too Many Dinner Parties at Fabri-
ka, and a group show at the Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum alongside other leading female visual artists. Her work has also been featured in the VA[A]DS Book Design Shows during the Ad Black Sea International Festival of Creativity and Tbilisi’s
Book Market.
Mari is a Salzburg Summer Academy alumna (Text XX Drawing, Maria Bussmann’s class) and was selected for the RCT Summer School. She created the short film Newborn Gown for a European Union–supported initiative against gender-based violence. She has also worked as a graphic designer and media coordinator in several creative teams.
Currently based between Tbilisi and Florence, Mari continues to develop her personal projects, aiming to transform cultural memory into active dialogue, where tradition becomes a tool for expression rather than confinement.
Welcome Mari, first tell us about your background and why you chose to pursue this career.
Do you remember the first artwork that stirred something inside you?
Since childhood, I have always been interested in storytelling, creating visuals with hands-on practice. These passions led me to pursue a career in visual arts. Beyond these personal interests, however, my life and cultural background have inspired me to think more deeply about the diverse environment I live in. Growing up in Georgia with Azerbaijani roots and an Iranian surname, I have always had to navigate between cultures, honor them, and preserve them. Alongside my artistic practice, this experience has helped me translate the process of cultural negotiation into art, making my diverse situation even more meaningful. I use art as a way to create a new identity and language in my life. The first time I became aware of this was when I began intuitively painting a series based on Azerbaijani wed- ding traditions, focusing on details such as the bride’s clothing. Simply capturing these traditions made me realize how deep and fascinating each layer of culture is. Since then, I have immersed myself in researching and reimagining my cultural environment through visual arts.
How would you describe your artistic practice? What are the recurring elements, themes, and concepts you refer to?
My artistic practice is rooted in identity and cultural themes, leading me to reinterpret and reimagine both old and new symbols drawn from my heritage as well as from my present life. A central part of my process involves gathering information and inspiration through verbal histories from my relatives and older generations in my family. Since my works emerge from lived experiences, people play an essential role in shaping them. Their navigation between cultures, their stories, and their energy are recurring elements that give strength and authenticity to my practice.
Tell us a bit about the process of making your works?
The first stage of my working process always begins with writing down my thoughts and making drawings about my ideas. Since my art is a form of storytelling, it feels natural that writing plays such an important role. I don’t limit myself to theoretical notes, I also write in a poetic way, and these abstract texts often generate new ideas. In a sense, the texts are already like visuals for me, but to clarify the forms, I move on to sketches and drawings, usually with a black pencil and simple techniques. Writing and drawing are not only part of my artistic process but also part of my daily routine, they help me train both my hand skills and my brain. After this stage, it becomes almost clear what the work will look like. But before I begin the final piece, another very important step is medium research. I experiment with materials by creating small sketch-like prototypes, testing how each material works for me and for the concept I am developing. This way, when I start the final work, I am fully aware of what I am doing, how I need to do it, and why I am doing it. The final stage then becomes less about thinking and more about the technical process, working hands-on with deep focus and patience until the work is complete.
Your practice is developed around different mediums, a multidisciplinary approach. Tell us about your practice.
For me, it is essential to carefully choose the materials with which I begin to tell a story. The material itself has to give me the possibility to shape a narrative from it. This is why I often work with natural, raw materials such as textiles, wool, and clay. These materials respond openly to my intentions, they easily take on the forms and colors I want, and they follow my process without resistance. Working with textiles, in particular, also feels conceptually close to the themes I explore. For centuries, my ancestors used fabrics to wrap and carry stories - passing them down as part of dowries and heritage. Every textile object, whether a sheet, curtain, or carpet, carries a memory of the past while also absorbing new meanings in the present.I also see a strong connection between the logic of textile-making and my own way of storytelling. Just as threads are woven together, like strands of hair, I weave words, images, and information into new narratives and identities. Each time I touch a new thread, fabric, or material, it feels like I am adding a new layer to my practice - making my work more emotional, more real, and always in dialogue with both tradition and the present moment.
Clearly, you have a distinct and identifiable personal style; how did you develop it? Was there a specific person or movement that inspired you?
I would say that my personal style was shaped not only by art but by everything I see, hear, and experience. It wasn’t formed by following a single movement or person, because I believe in today’s world it’s impossible to limit yourself to one approach. My style comes from being part of life itself, not just the art world. I often draw inspiration from people, environments, and cultural traditions around me rather than from art books, because my practice is more closely connected to lived experiences and the cultures I belong to. This way, my style developed naturally, as a dialogue between my surroundings and my own inner voice.
What is the meaning or creative motivation behind your works?
The motivation behind my work comes from questions of identity and belonging. Growing up in a culturally and ethnically diverse environment, I am interested in how new identities are formed through the layering of traditions, stories, and beliefs. My diploma project, for example, was rooted in reflecting on questions such as: Who am I? Where do my roots lie? What heritage do I carry forward? Through my practice, I try to weave these questions into visual form, using symbols, stories, and materials that connect the past with the present. Many of my earlier works explored themes such as marriage, women’s roles, sacrifice, and the cultural meaning of objects. In my recent projects, these themes no longer stand apart but come together as one woven narrative -an exploration of identity itself. Ultimately, I want my work to create a space where viewers can reflect on their own identities, their roots, and the stories they carry within their cultural and personal memory.
We are at the end of this short interview, would you like to add something about your artistic research?
How did you find the collaboration with our gallery?
The process of reflection continues every day, so in that sense, each day becomes part of my artistic research. My life and my art are inseparable, moving in parallel, which is why I feel that I am always in a state of artistic research. This platform and your gallery have been a true motivation for me - you gave me the chance to speak about my practice once more and to reflect on how I can expand my message further, and how I can communicate it to people in an even more meaningful way.