Ali and Nino in Batumi, Georgia

I've been wanting to see this statue in person forever. I finally did, last weekend (February 7, 2026).

My niece, who is staying with me and will be leaving in a week, desperately wanted to go to a sea (she has been to lakes, ponds, rivers, and oceans but never to a sea) so we decided to make a short trip to Batumi, the third largest city in Georgia (after Tbilisi and Kutaisi) located on the Black Sea shore. It is also a capital of Ajara, one of the regions of Georgia with a distinct culture and traditions. And the favorite place for Russians who fled Putin's war in Ukraine. In our short stay there, we heard a lot more Russian than Georgian in the streets of Batumi.

Even though it is off season for the resort city and there are not as many tourists there with a lot of attractions closed, there was still a lot to do in Batumi. We went to the ethnographic Ajara Museum that blew us away with its artifacts and exhibits of both history and traditions of the Ajara people, who for over 300 years survived under the Ottoman Empire occupation and preserved their culture and traditions.

We also took endless strolls around the city, which is wonderfully walkable and has lots of eclectic interesting buildings of various architectural styles. The city also has many beautiful parks and squares and of course the famous Batumi Boulevard that hugs the entire city shore with its beaches, docks and parks.

But the most important site we both wanted to see was the Ali and Nino statue. It is probably one of the most talked-about contemporary statues in the world, created in 2010 by the famous Georgian artist and sculptor Tamar Kvesitadze. I remember watching many clips of the statue moving in the warm sunset light when it just opened, thinking, "I need to see this marvel with my own eyes and figure out how they pass through each other."

Standing at 8 meters high, the monument is made of transparent steel figures of man and woman, named Ali and Nino, moving slowly to pass through each other and gradually become one, only to part ways several seconds later.

The sculpture depicts the characters from “Ali and Nino” novel by the famous Azerbaijani writer Kurban Said. It is a sad love story of an Azeri Muslim nobleman named Ali Shirvashir and Georgian Christian princess Nino Kipiani, set during World War I in Baku. They fall in love as kids and run away together later, after a tragic event, to live extremely poor life in hiding. But then the whirlpool of the war, the Russian revolution, and changing occupation by imperial powers as well as the sense of obligation to their motherlands and peoples breaks them apart. Nino flees with their daughter to Western Georgia while Ali stays to fight for his motherland and is killed.

The statue of Ali and Nino is a symbol of love, albeit not eternal, despite nationality and faith. The fact that love like this could not keep them together and the circumstances destroy their bliss is reflected in the fact that they do not stay in the eternal embrace and move apart.

I was always curious about how the statue's movement was executed. These are steel statues, they must have a vertical rod that keep them standing, right? If that is indeed so, how do they pass through each other?

Well, being on the site and watching the statues move helped me realize that even though the rods are there (look at Nino's leg in the video below), they do not run through the entire statue. Besides, the bodies are made of steel coiled into a spiral. So, with the precision of exact calculations and with a semi-circular movement of the statutes' platforms the optical illusion of passing through is achieved. Here's the video that was taken by someone in the summer and without the plexiglass "fence" with Georgian flags in my video that somewhat obscures the movement and creates a mystery about it:

The statue is located close to the "Panoramic Wheel" that we rode and I had a chance to see it from the bird's eye. Seeing this magnificent work of art was definitely worth of making a trip to Batumi. I hope I will be able to go there again in May when the days are longer and warmer.