A NEW LIFE OF THE HYSTORIC HOUSE - INTERIOR BY ESMA KHETSURIANI IN KUTAISI

When I first walked in here, I felt as if the house had been waiting for me, as if it was asking me to let its voice be heard to tell all the stories that live inside its walls. The building was built in 1910 by Jibrail Iashvili, father of poet Paolo Iashvili in one of the old districts of Kutais. The magazines “Golden Ram” and “Blue Horns” were created in Paolo’s house. Galaktioni, Titsiani, Valerian Gafrindashvili, Kolau Nadiradze, Ivanekifiani, Sandro Tsirekidze, Giorgi Leonidze, Sergo Kldiashvili and others used to gather here. The house was visited by Boris Pasternak and Konstantine Belmont… Their influence is reflected in the interior even today: the horn-shaped door handles, the large chandelier in the dining room above the table around which they gathered and created new movements in Georgian literature. As time passed, the house changed owners. In the 1930s, the great-grandfather of our family, Anton Khetsuriani, was a frequent guest of this house, as he was friends with Grigol Narsia, the head of Kutaisi at that time. Narsia’s family become the owners of the house. As years pass, the owner changes again. This time, Ramaz Furtseladze, a musician who came from Tbilisi to create the second music school in Kutaisi, settles in the house. A young girl receives piano lessons from him and while visiting, feels as if she is in a magical world. In the future, this young girl would become my mother-in-law, Marine Shashiashvili. For the following thirty years, the house is left completely alone. Closed, gloomy and awaiting something new. I had been away from Georgia for years. One time, I advised my friends, costume designers who were working on a new collection, to find an old interior with a “character” in Kutaisi and shoot their collection there. In a few days, they sent me the photos… I flew out immediately. The house was waiting for me…

 

Ms Ketino Buadze, who was also a musician, found the owner of the apartment in one day. The owner has been living in France for a long time and does not plan on going back to Kutaisi. What I experienced the first time I stepped foot into the apartment was an indescribable feeling. I feel the same emotions each time I go home. I haven’t lived in Kutaisi since childhood. In my imagination, Kutaisi was always a city where mornings started with a French breakfast and days ended with evening serenades on the balcony, a city full of girls and boys travelling by carriages, sending each other love cards. It was in such a city that the Khetsurians’ big family gathered around the big table every day. Today, this table is not just a part of our memory for us, it still unites our family. It turned out that the monument status of the house had been mistakenly removed and we restored it immediately. Ms. Nana Kuprashvili from the Academy of Arts gathered an extraordinary group of restorers. We followed the path of conservation and tried not to harm the house with our intervention. Conservation-restoration lasted one year. With this careful approach, the house spoke up and revealed its face which had been hidden under a multitude of layers. The walls had been painted by an invited French artist, and the ceiling had traces of art nouveau. The house started breathing again. I didn’t think much about the interior, because the house itself dictated what it wanted and where. Many details came to life from the memories related to the Kutaisi ancestral house of the Khetsurians, the history of which my husband tells us as if it were our own memories. From the historical house of the Khetsurians, we have held onto several items of decor that are very precious to us. Overall, we brought furniture and decor items from eight different countries. I wanted the house to leave the impression as if time had not stopped there. Many epochs and generations have passed but have remained, and many more will go with their stories and people. The traces of all of them should be seen here and time must be dynamic, in the form of old and new residents. I love my home, in my Kutaisi.

 

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