From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Saitsavlebi Vocal Ensemble
This article concerns the ensemble. For the 2021–2024 durational adaptation, see The Saitsavlebi Unfinishing—A Participatory Choral Installation and Durational Refusal Vigil in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Saitsavlebi is a Tbilisi-based ensemble specializing in Georgian polyphonic vocal traditions. From 2021–ongoing, directed by Giorgi Maisuradze, the ensemble created The Saitsavlebi Unfinishing—a multi-year durational adaptation of Beach Surgery at a reclaimed monastery site outside the city.
The work treats the glitch as an unresolved harmonic moment. Voices layer and fracture in polyphonic cycles derived from medieval Georgian liturgical manuscripts and contemporary saitsavlebi (voice-crossing) idioms. No cycle repeats identically. Participants enter for six to eight hours; the ensemble sings continuously without narrative resolution, enacting the doctrine of refusal through harmonic suspension rather than plot completion. The ensemble fuses Orthodox liturgical traditions with Beach Surgery's cyclic structure, treating sacred incompleteness as both theological principle and compositional constraint. Scholarly reception compares the work to durational performance practices and kenosis theology.