Public Story
A Look Beyond the Headlines
It is noteworthy that, before my visit to Pankisi Gorge, I, too, had perceived the area as an extremely dangerous place. But what I discovered there upon arrival was an eye-opening experience that completely changed my views about the region. I was astonished by the kindness, wisdom, hospitality, and general beauty of the Kist people residing there. There might be only few cases of encountering such peace-loving and tolerant people that I can recall. The goal from the very first day of my trip was to document the dynamics of raw, current life in the Pankisi Gorge.
Two things struck me as I walked my way through the villages. The first was dramatic influence of mass media on collective thinking, and how detrimental the media's obsession with “terrorism” may be for the lives of ordinary people. Pankisi residents represent an “ordinary” population, like any other, although they are now forced to carry the label of "terrorists" due to the individual incidents, and, most importantly, due to the spirit of sensationalism, which is a tendency in majority of the news reports today. The insufficient media coverage of the region truly affects Pankisi population, and, at the same time, misleads general public resulting in false perceptions. The second subject of surprise was notably deep spirituality of the people of Pankisi—not in a strictly religious sense, but in the way they are connected to the nature around them, and the deeply rooted traditions of their community. Paradoxically, I felt as if I had found the real Georgian soul being kept alive there—in this place, isolated from the rest of the country, with Georgians living all around it.
As mentioned above, the people, their philosophy of life, their traditions, and customs are uniquely peaceful—full of love and tolerance. My project aims to make the Georgian and international audiences look beyond the headlines and think about the individuals behind the established labels, with the aim of [gradually] diminishing the myth of danger associated with the Gorge.
Pankisi Valley has become a symbol of the paradoxical modern way of perceiving the world around us: obsessed with the images we construct in our heads, we fail to see the extraordinary reality of the ordinary people in front of us.
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