A bronze statue of the philosopher Merab Mamardashvili against a blue sky. Branches extend into the frame on the right.
Conference
24 Jun 2026 – 27 Jun 2026

Die Freiheit hat keine Garantien. Merab Mamardashvili — Denken in Katastrophenzeiten

Venue: Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Eberhard-Lämmert-Saal, entrance Meierottostr. 8, 10719 Berlin and Kino Arsenal, Plantagenstr. 30, 13347 Berlin
Organized by Zaal Andronikashvili (ZfL), Julia Sushytska (Occidental College), Giga Zedania (Ilia State University)
Contact: Zaal Andronikashvili
Research project(s): Small/Minor Literature as World Literature

“History is the drama of freedom—there are no guarantees in it, no mechanism that advances it on its own. Every moment is surrounded by chaos. If one loses the tension of thought, one falls into the abyss—and this abyss is not somewhere else; it surrounds us now, at this very moment.” The Georgian philosopher Merab Mamardashvili (1930–1990) articulated his thoughts at the end of the 1980s in a Soviet Union that still appeared stable to the outside world.

He described from within what totalitarian ideology does to consciousness—not as the effect of external apparatuses, but as a creeping self-abandonment of thought that outlasts totalitarianism and remains latent in every society. His message to the West was unmistakable: freedom is not an inheritance, but an effort—those who take freedom for granted are already standing on the edge of the abyss.

One of the most significant philosophers of the Soviet era, yet largely unknown in the West: This conference introduces Mamardashvili’s thought for the first time into our debates on ideology, social consciousness, and the conditions of freedom in the present.

An event organized by the ZfL in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb).

 

Fig. above: Ainars Brūvelis: Monument to Merab Mamardashvili by Ernst Neizvestny in Tbilisi, licence: CC BY-SA 3.0

Program

Wednesday, 24 Jun 2026

2 pm

Internal workshop on planning the International Merab Mamardashvili Society

 

Thursday, 25 Jun 2026

9.30 am

Welcome and Introduction

9.45 am
Panel 1: Truth after Totalitarianism

  • Marci Shore: Mamardashvili’s Idea of Truth in a Moment of Post-Truth
  • Julia Sushytska: After Posthumanism: Mamardashvili and Becoming-Human

11.45 am
Panel 2: Political Philosophy of the Present

  • Alyssa DeBlasio: Thinking with Mamardashvili in the 21st Century
  • Marina F. Bykova: The Courage to Think and the Unfinished Task of De-Totalitarianization

2.30 pm
Panel 3: Philosophical Lineages: Ideology and Metaphysics

  • Giga Zedania: Mamardashvili and the Post-Transcendental Inflection
  • Evert van der Zweerde: Mamardashvili and Ideology

4.30 pm
Panel 4: Noetic Topologies

  • Miglena Nikolchina: Correspondences: Mamardashvili and a Game of Numbers
  • Andrei Paramonov: Reading Mamardashvili: Towards a Topological Interpretation of the Inner Word

 

Friday, 26 Jun 2026

10.00 am
Panel 5: The Politics of Signification

  • Elisa Pontini: Where Is the Void? Topologies of Critical Thought in Lacan and Mamardashvili
  • Keti Chukhrov: How to Discover Meaning Behind the Master Signifier

11.45 am
Panel 6: The Conditions of Political Form

  • Diana Gasparyan: The Symbolic Nature of Law in Merab Mamardashvili’s Philosophy: Toward a Reconstruction of the Phenomenology of Legal Consciousness
  • Viktoria Faibyshenko: Mamardashvili’s Physical Metaphysics between the Super-Political and the Sub-Political

2.15 pm
Panel 7: Blind Spots

  • Dmitry Mamulia: There Are Evil Wardrobes: Mamardashvili and Darkness
  • Alisa Slaughter:The Scintillating Scotoma. Radical Contexts for A Spy for an Unknown Country. Essays and Lectures by Merab Mamardashvili

4.00 pm
Panel 8: Between Nationalism, Imperialism, and Colonialism

  • Giorgi Maisuradze: “An Atypical Experience”: Mamardashvili’s Chronotope
  • Zaal Andronikashvili: Delinking: Mamardashvili in Dialogue with Decolonial Theory

5.30 pm
Closing remarks


FILM PROGRAM: Forum & Friends VII: Georgien. Momente am Abgrund
Venue: Kino Arsenal, Plantagenstr. 30, 13347 Berlin

Friday, 26 Jun 2026

7.00 pm
Merab Mamardashvili: Denken am Abgrund

  • The Poet in the Orange Jacket – Zviad Ratiani, Salomé-Nutsa Alexi, Georgia 2025, Digital file, georg. OmeU, 8 Min.
  • Gza Shinisaken – Merab Mamardashvili / The Way Home – Merab Mamardashvili, Nikoloz Drozdov, Georgian SSR 1990, DCP, georg. OmeU, 19 Min.
  • and others

Followed by a panel discussion with Zaal Andronikashvili, Alyssa DeBlasio , and Giga Zedania.

 

Saturday, 27 Jun 2026

7.00 pm
Fragile Freiheit
Curated by Salomé Jashi in cooperation with DOCA – Documentary Association Georgia

  • Mzia – Mzia Amaghlobeli, Salomé Jashi, Georgia 2025, Digital file, georg. OmeU, 6 Min.
  • Gaitsanit Chveni Shvilebi / Meet Our Children, Omar Gvasalia, Georgian SSR, 1988, DCP, georg. OmeU, 24 Min.
  • Kalebi Kvis Ghobis Mighma / Women Behind a Stone Wall, Tengiz Malania, Georgian SSR, 1990, DCP, Russian dubbed version with Engl. ST, 20 min.
  • Zahesi 708, Tamuna Karumidze, Georgia, 2001, DCP, georg. OmeU, 48 min.

Introduction (video): Salomé Jashi; Discussion with Tamuna Karumidze, moderated by Barbara Wurm

 

Monday, 29 Jun 2026

7.00 pm
Gewissen/Kampf

  • Cell No. 101 - Zviad Tsetskhladze, Tiku Kobiashvili, Georgia, 2025, Digital file, georg. OmeU, 5 min.
  • During the Many Years, Goran Rebić, Austria, 1992, DCP, OmeU, 40 min.
  • Am Rande der Welt / At the Edge of the World, Goran Rebić, Austria, 1992, 35 mm, OmeU, 90 Min.