Dato Barbakadze

- Georgia -

Dato Barbakadze was born in 1966, in Tbilisi. He learned philosophy, psychology, sociology and ancient history in Georgia and Germany. In the 90s, after the declaration of independence of Georgia, he founded and published several literary periodicals in Tbilisi and one video magazine. These editions created an important platform for the development of nonsimulative alternative literature in Georgia. During this period Dato also taught academic courses of the history of philosophy, aesthetics and logic in different universities in Tbilisi. Currently he is a visiting lecturer at Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, and a visiting teacher at two schools. 


Dato Barbakadze writes prose and nonfiction essays, he also translated German language literature, but nonetheless, the essential part of his creative life is poetry. The major influences in formation of his poetic aesthetics were: on one hand, clerical poetry from Georgian middle ages, as well as Ancient Greek and classic German metaphysical systems; on the other hand – his problematic (aka romantic) relationship with Georgian cultural-social context.  

To understand Dato’s poetry, it is also crucial to specify that his every poetry collection is a multi-layered structure, built around one particular conceptual axis. The poems included in each of these books not only continue and expand on one another, but also oppose and even contradict each other. 

 

Just like every poet in the world, Dato Barbakadze thinks that poetry is not sports, and for the living soul of poetry it has absolutely no importance to point out, how many books has the author published, how many languages his work is translated to, how many festivals has he participated in and how many awards are on his account. Therefore, it is solely for the purpose of expressing gratitude towards institutions, to mention that his books and some of his poems have been translated to several languages, he indeed has participated in different festivals, gotten a number of awards and is a member of several literary societies.