This project deals with dieting and drug addiction, two activities that are currently very popular among young people in Georgia. People get involved with them out of desperation, not knowing what else to do. They also offer a kind of hopeless escape: people feel a kind of security by wishing for something that they know will never happen.

Subutex is something like a methadone, it is made to help people cut down on drug use and to prevent cold-turkey. It is imported to Georgia from France. Instead of using it for its proper purpose, this pill is usually shared and shot up by groups of eight young men. The poster I made showed an enlarged Subutex pill with eight common, urban Georgian names printed next to it. Next to this poster there was another one offering two kinds of diet for young women. The first was a diet for intellectuals, which was mostly recommended to women with jobs and higher education degrees; among other things it claimed that the diet will be most effective if one speaks English and has computer skills (referring to the only job opportunities in Georgia: in order to get work in foreign companies, it is essential to have English and computer skills). The second diet was for people who were unemployed, and included advice on how by sleeping long hours one could lose several kilos. The diet included more absurd facts but was written in a such a way that it was hard to grasp its ironic message right away.

I placed these posters all over the city on the garbage containers and in the places where the young people gather. Later on I photographed these places and made postcards: “Greetings from Georgia”.