In My Botticelli, I insert photographs of Georgian girls into the center of Botticelli’s Primavera, mirroring the original poses and its idyllic, subtly erotic atmosphere. Their presence renders the scene simultaneously realistic and naïve, infused with youth and tenderness.

Reflecting on the turbulent 1990s—the political and economic instability and the transition from post-Soviet reality to independence — I sought to mark and celebrate this courageous optimism and naïveté, a sensibility that feels increasingly absent in the 21st century.