In 2010 Rezo Gabriadze built a unique clock tower next to the marionette theatre in Tbilisi old town. Every hour an angel comes out to ring the bell with a small hammer.
There is a small mechanical puppet theatre inside the tower and twice a day at noon and at 7pm you can see the show – “The Circle of Life”.
Rezo decorated the tower with hundreds of tiles which he designed himself and it instantly became a major architectural attraction of Tbilisi.
Rezo Gabriadze speaking about the Tower and its construction:
When the construction began, I found myself, as if by miracle of a time machine, in the faraway and beautiful Byzantine Empire of the 10th– 13thcenturies.
I made a trip to the Dark Ages and I must say that they were not nearly as ‘dark’ as we often think of them. And even if that period was dark, who are we to pass the judgment? We’d better keep silent on the subject.
The tower was to naturally blend in with the surrounding space and time, but who would do the building? Where are good builders to be found? In the end, one came out of a wall. The other stepped off a bus. The first was called Otar (Otar Magrakvelidze), a man of my age, over 70. He had spent 50 years on different construction sites in Georgia, and had been a builder all those years. What a beautiful career! I made friends with him, and we will be friends forever!
The name of the other man was Avtandil (Avtandil Lezhava). Judging by his character, his age could have been between 1,300 and 1,500. Reticent and eluding, he would return your glance with a quiet subtle smile of his elusive eyes, without focusing on you for long, and then would shift his gaze to a drainpipe. Phrases of more than five words depressed him. He arrived with a bundle and a bag of tools, just like in the 12th century. His wife brought the rest of his belongings, quietly shaking her head.
I was also assisted by engineers, designers and architects – Zurab Dzhaparidze, Gela Djangirashvili, Archil Dzhaparidze, Kote Odishvili among others. They translated my drawings and ideas into modern, understandable construction language. I am extremely grateful for their help
