Stories: KoBa

Working 

2016 

Koba Shedania was killed in Moscow, on April 25, 1994. They say, it was an accident –his white Mercedes was mixed up with someone else’s. His body was brought to Georgia and buried next to his father, in Samegrelo region. For the next 9 months, Mother spent days and nights at beloved only son’s grave. Than a neighbor had a dream: Koba came to him and took him to the soil, where his soul would find peace. “I need a house, my own house! Please, build it for me here!” – He said. Very soon, the family reburied Koba to the pointed place and here, another life of him started.  

Mother and aunt take care of the grave and a two-floor house built on it. This is their daily life. A silver BMW is also standing nearby, next to the place of Koba’s eternal rest. This is a gift for him, after his death, which used to serve the whole village when needed.  

Koba’s relatives and friends come here very often, as they cannot imagine the most important events of their lives without him – weddings, christenings, engagements and birthdays. In the house, built on behalf of Koba, children of his loved ones play – Koba is an inseparable part of their routine as well. 

Talking about Koba as if he is alive, is something very normal for the family. Even a TV is on quite often next to his grave, mostly, good news for daily progammes – bad news is not for Koba. 

In the house, where everything comes and goes around him, the sense of time and reality is very different. This place has its own rhythm, its heartbeat, its mystic and reality. This house is a parallel universe, where the dead and alive coexist together.