Dates
| 27.06.2026 / 18:00–23:00 |
| / |
Information
During the second Garden Session at Studio ALTA, the garden will transform into a magical space filled with music, art, dance, ritual, and hospitality. Temple Of is a collective of DJs and performers from the Caucasus, Central and West Asia, and North Africa. Throughout the evening program, audiences will experience a series of DJ sets interwoven with performative and dance interventions, while enjoying specialties from the tables of Kavkaz Brothers and Uncle Cey. After sunset, the garden will come alive with Supra National — a performance inspired by the ancient Georgian cultural ritual of the supra.
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𓂃⋆.˚ 18:00–21:00 ~ TEMPLE OF: DJ sets, performances, food & chill 𓂃⋆.˚
Supra/SWANA wedding garden vibes with art installations, Caucasus food and tea, nostalgic dj sets and folklore performances.
. ✦ ݁ ˖ DJ’S & PERFORMERS . ✦ ݁ ˖
Kavkaz Widow ~ https://www.instagram.com/lea__elisha/
Fifi Pharaonic ~ https://www.instagram.com/fifi.ph.cz/
Nisan ~ https://www.instagram.com/nisan__nisan__/
Technadze ~ https://www.instagram.com/technadze_/
MLK:M ~ https://www.instagram.com/melik_mageramov/
Ceyhun Yilmaz ~ https://www.instagram.com/ceylibisey/
SABI ~ https://www.instagram.com/no_art_just_violence/
Nia Bankova ~ https://www.instagram.com/niabankova/
. ✦ ݁ ˖ FOOD . ✦ ݁ ˖
Uncle Cey ~ https://www.instagram.com/unclecey/
Kavkaz Brothers ~ https://www.instagram.com/l0tsman/ https://www.instagram.com/mahmud.garibli/
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𓂃⋆.˚ 21:00 | Uta P. Bekaia & Leah Feldman: Supra National 𓂃⋆.˚
(Supra)National is a performance that presents the ancient Georgian cultural ritual of the supra, a gathering that itself drew on supranational cultural traditions of celebration and world building shared across the Transcaucasus. Our collaborative team includes Uta Bekaia, a Georgian multimedia and performance artist whose work centers on the speculative recreation of ancestral rituals reimagined through a Queer utopian lens, and Leah Feldman, a professor and researcher based at the University of Chicago studying the history of internationalism and anticolonial thought in the Soviet Union from the vantage of gender and sexuality and ethnicity. Bekaia and Feldman will bring together multiple disciplines from history, theory and philosophy to performance, sculpture, costume, and video to explore the supra not only as a historical rite, but an occasion for queer world building, reimagining forms of internationalism that are increasingly necessary amid authoritarian returns in Europe and the US.
The supra unites poetry, song, expressions of hospitality, and communal storytelling. Like other spaces of carnivalistic play, it was a tradition at once structured by gendered and classed hierarchies as it was a wild space of overturning order and reimagining social relations intoxicated and inspired by wine and poetry. (Supra)National also draws on the artistic tradition of the Surrealist dinner and Dadaist theater traditions as forms of antifascist political and aesthetic resistance. It plays on the relationship between the internal order of the supra ritual organized by the tamada, or toastmaster, and the idea of the supranational, that is, forms of socio-cultural belonging that transcend the limits of the nation-state. While the supra is known as a Georgian national tradition, we probe its supranational origins and political and aesthetic possibilities to upend the rigid patriarchal orders that have come to govern nationalist imaginaries of the traditional, reinventing tradition through queer and spiritual ritual.
Drawing on the anti-fascist aesthetic traditions of Georgian and European Surrealism and Dadaism the (Supra)National brings together avant-garde costume and theater. Reimagining the figure of the tamada and Georgian supra toasting rituals, we will stage a Dadaist play that focuses on the themes of propaganda and censorship, topics that bring the history of the interwar political moment to bear on our current political context amid the rise of authoritarian movements across Europe. The performance exposes how the new right’s vilification of immigrant communities in right wing propaganda, as well as censorship and diminishing of resources supporting independent media have silenced the perpetration of war crimes and human rights abuses including the illegal detention and abuse of immigrants by ICE and other border control agencies, the silencing of LGBTQI communities, and the repression of protest of the US-Israel genocide in Gaza and the murder of civilians and violent distruction of essential infrastructure in the wars in Iran and Lebanon. Drawing on these avant-garde theatrical traditions, which use absurd dialogue and fantastic costume to expose the violence of right-wing extremism and the supra tradition, which foregrounds the connection between public address, diplomacy, community, and hospitality, the (Supra)National reimagines a Dadaist supra as a space for gathering to speak to power, drawing on community ritual, humor, and play. In addition to bringing awareness to censorship concerns, the performance also facilitates international dialogues around the cultural rite of the supra and related traditions across Central Europe and the Caucasus.
⚪️ Uta Bekaia is a Georgian-born multimedia artist currently based in Tbilisi and Berlin. His work centers on the speculative recreation of ancestral rituals, reimagined through a Queer utopian lens. Drawing inspiration from traditional crafts, Bekaia creates elaborate wearable sculptures, ceramics, tapestries, and objects, which he weaves into immersive installations, films, and live performances. Bekaia studied Industrial Design at the Tbilisi Mtsire Academy. His work has been exhibited at Kimball Art Center (UT), Marisa Newman Projects (NY), Museum of Modern Art (Tbilisi), Kiev Biennial (Ukraine), Kuad Gallery (Istanbul), SchauFenster (Berlin), and many other international venues. His practice has been featured in W Magazine, MoMA Post, ArtAsiaPacific, Huffington Post, and The Art Newspaper, among others. He has been commissioned for public art performances and parades by institutions such as Tbilisi City Hall for the annual Tbilisoba Festival, UNESCO World Book Capital Opening Ceremony, and TurnPark Art Space. Bekaia has participated in residencies including ART OMI, the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), and Garikula Art Residency. He is the founding member of FUNGUS, a platform for queer-identifying creatives in the Caucasus.
⚪️ Leah Feldman is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Theater and Performance Studies at the University of Chicago. Her research, writing, and art collaborations focus on the formation and collapse of the Soviet empire from the vantage point of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Her work explores forms of belonging by attending to how forms of erotic, ethnic, and gendered embodiment inform worldbuilding projects. Her books include On the Threshold of Eurasia: Orientalism and Revolutionary Aesthetics in the Caucasus (Cornell 2018) and a co-authored book with collective Slavs and Tatars, Azbuka Strikes Back: An Anticolonial ABCs.
⚪️ Lea Elisha, known as Kavkaz Widow, is a performance artist, electronic music producer, DJ, and ideologist, as well as the high priest(ess) of Temple Of. Originally from Tbilisi, Georgia, they are a proud mutt of South Kavkaz, Sephardic Jewish, Slavic, and Balkan heritage. A dancer and scholar of Caucasus and Central Asian traditions, their practice is grounded in a deep respect for folkloric dance, music, and ritual. Through movement, storytelling, and ceremonial performance, their work explores the intersection of ancestral knowledge and queer identity, revealing how fluidity and queerness have always been embedded within cultural heritage. Their dance background spans both traditional and contemporary forms, from performing regional dances of the Caucasus and Central Asia to working with the Isadora Duncan Ensemble, embracing the expressive language of early modern dance. Kavkaz Widow has performed internationally, from New York to Prague, engaging audiences through reimagined cultural forms and experimental performance practices.
⚪️ Fifi Pharaonic is a North African artist and DJ based in Prague, and the resident performance artist of Temple Of. Wearing many hats, he is a producer with FIKI Productions, a skilled Egyptian Roma belly dancer, and a charismatic host. Since beginning his journey in 2023, Fifi has quickly made a strong impact on the Prague scene with his performances, striking presence, and dynamic DJ sets.
Project Manager: Žaneta Vávrová
PR & Communication: Max Dvořák, Nela Pietrová (Biennale Matter of Art), Tereza Vacková (Studio ALTA)
Technical production: Studio ALTA
Financial Manager: Pamela Kuťáková (Biennale Matter of Art)
