Matches as a symbol of the “cold war”

Artist Sasha Chavchavadze published her memoirs

A book of memoirs by Sasha Chavchavadze “Museum of Matches” was introduced at the publishing house Proteotypes in the New York.

The preface says that many years ago in Vladimir Nabokov’s memoir “Remembrance, speak!” the author was struck by the episode in which a friend of Nabokov’s family, tsarist general, showed a variety of games with matches to young Volodya.

Today, a multimedia artist, 56-year-old Sasha Chavchavadze, a direct descendant of the famous Georgian noble family, is the founder and director of the unique “Museum of Matches”, located in Brooklyn.

The museum occupies a couple of rooms in the Art Gallery Proteus Gowanus at the corner of Union and Nevins Streets in Brooklyn next to the Gowanus Canal.

This area is gloomy, industrial, and ithas been changing in the last few years, obviously trying to become something of artistic Manhattan TriBeCa.

A group of artists including Sasha, bought the building of the gallery to create a kind of artistic cooperative.

“How did the idea of the book appear? – Sasha asks me. – I decided to write it many years ago.

Match Museum, which is also a “Cold War” museum is my attempt to explain and comment on the life of my father, David Chavchavadze, with the help of art.

He is now 87 years old, he lives in Washington. David worked as a military interpreter, then he has served as a CIA agent for a quarter of a century.

His life is devoted to service to America, service to the Western values ​​of freedom against the threat of the spread of communism.

Before I created a museum, I created large collage paintings, using old yellowed dresses and embroidered napkins with monograms found in my grandmother’s trunk, as art objects.

The essence of these paintings is to show the striking transformation of human lives.

The life of my grandmother Nina was opposite to Cinderella’s fairy tale.

She was a rich Russian-Georgian aristocrat, Princess of the environment of Nicholas II, and when she emigrated to America she began to live very modestly, having entered the circle of intellectual Bohemia”.

Surname Chavchavadze has three instant reminiscences relating to the 19th century.

An outstanding poet Alexander Chavchavadze. His daughter, Nina, who married Alexander Griboyedov. A writer and public figure Ilia Chavchavadze.

There is a genealogy of the clan in the book by David Chavchavadze, “Crowns and Trenchcoats”, published in 1990.

Chavchavadze had owned the estate of Tsinandali and the famous brand of white wine until the 1917 revolution.

David’s mother and Sasha’s grandmother, Princess Nina Chavchavadze is a representative of the Romanov dynasty.

A half of royal houses of Europe, including England and Denmark includes relatives of today’s Chavchavadze. Alexander, who is called Sasha is the successor of this dynasty.

According to Sasha, her father explained in detail how he played war games with matches when he was a child.

In particular, how to build rival armies, which differ in color of sulfuric heads, he also explained the rules of combat operations, which match is considered to be killed and wounded.

“As the sources for the book I used short stories and memoirs of my relatives – continues Sasha. – For example, the memories of my grandmother Nina, which have never been published.

She wrote them in English, which she knew very well, however, she spoke with a slight accent.

Her Russian was old-fashioned, pre-revolutionary.

In addition, a few years ago I began to ask my father my questions by e-mail and he answered me readily. He appeared to be a great historian, deeply analyzing the events of the 20th century. And the more I learned about the activities of my father, the more sympathy i got for him and his work for the CIA. It came in contrast to the views of grandparents and inveterate liberals who hated the CIA along with communism and the Soviet Union. However, it is characteristic of exile – every generation has a more conservative views”.

Sasha shows the museum’s exhibits – paintings, posters, photographs, books that have a direct or indirect relevance to the theme of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. And, of course, matches, or rather, the intricate patterns and compositions, compiled from matches with blue, green and red heads.