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CARAVAN MEETING in TBILISI
7th – 10th April 2015, Tbilisi, Georgia
Update <Culture>. Upgrade <Confidence>. Link <Communities>
The Caravan is a networking meeting aimed at building connections, stimulating reflection and
facilitating cooperation among artists and cultural producers in the regions of South Caucasus and
South-Eastern Europe.
The current global economic and political crisis has further deepened the social differences within
societies and between countries. Both the Balkans and the South Caucasus are facing these challenges in
their historically specific frame of an ever changing, discontinuous, disillusioned social context defined
by transition from their respective versions of socialism to new „authentic” democracies and market
economies, ethnic conflicts and constant crises.
Culture - by its capacity to generate reflection, to construct and deconstruct meaning – has always acted
as a facilitator of social processes, but cross-cultural translation can offer more: through comparison,
emulation, osmosis, cross-fertilisation or contamination it can generate new, hybrid models of
emancipatory practices, praxis in ephemeral or resilient solidarity networks.
Artists have always been good at this. Dealing with changing contexts and limited resources, the artistic
sectors in these regions proved to have a great potential not only questioning existing models of social
production but also in proposing and experimenting with new models of resilient and sustainable living.
In order to add up into critical mass and make a scalable social difference these experiments need to
shift in time and space – hence the idea of the Caucasus-Balkan Express Caravan.
Following the model of the Balkan Express meetings organized for the last years in different cities in
South-Eastern Europe (Cluj, Mostar, Maribor, Kotor, Sofia …), a group of independent cultural operators
from South-Eastern Europe and South Caucasus visit Tbilisi for a few intensive networking days. The
caravan involves cultural actors that act across sectors and tackle in a responsible and participatory
manner issues that are relevant for the contemporary society.The programme of the event includes
meetings with local artists, public presentations, performances, and discussions on the topics of art and
public space, socially engaged artistic practices, cultural policies, and international cooperation.
Update <Culture> is our intention to connect and discover the each other‘s artistic universe. Our focus
on socially engaged art is our commitment to Upgrade <Confidence>. Aiming to share knowledge and
resources by working together is how we strive to Link <Communities>.
PROGRAMME
April 7, Tuesday
Arrival of the guests
14.00
Informal lunch (starting from the Old Key Hotel)
17.00 – 20.00
Welcome&introduction @ Gallery Nectar Performance Basement
Presentation of the programme by Rarita Zbranca, Tamara Bracic Vidmar, Lali
Pertenava
Introduction of the participants
Welcome drinks & light dinner
20.00
Performance: How to make a bomb/ Nikoloz Humanoidi/Gallery Nectar
April 8, Wednesday
10.00 - 11.00
Introduction session – Why socially engaged art? @The Old Key Hotel lounge
11.30 - 13.00
Walking tour: Red Terror Topography Tour
13.00 – 14.30
Lunch
14.30 – 16.30
Visit @CCA Tbilisi, Focus on visual art practices in the region
Centre for Contemporary Arts Tbilisi: presentation on Tbilisi Triennial by Wato
Urushadze
18.00-20.00
Panel discussion: Socially Engaged Art and the Public Sphere @Frontline Club
(public event)
Session 1 (40 minutes) Artists as activists: voices from Tbilisi
Mariam Bakradze (architect), Students green movement: Green Fist – Mariam
Gurgenidze, Salome Chanturidze
Session 2 ( 60 minutes) Art in public space: Nini Falavandishvili (curator),
Istvan Szakats (artist/curator, AltArt), Harutyun Alpetyan (artist, YCA Yerevan)
Moderated by Lali Pertenava
20.00
Dinner or Theatre performance
9 April, Thursday
10.00 - 11.30
Focus on performing arts practices in the region @Frontline Club
Bullion Group presentation
Artist Talk with Nadia Tsulukidze, performance artist
11.45 – 13.30
NETWorking session @Frontline Club
13.30 – 14.30
Lunch break
14.30 – 16.00
Film & discussion @Frontline Club (public event)
Energy crisis art by Teona Jafaridze
16.00 – 20.00
Visit @ Shindisi Field Academy outside of Tbilisi
Presentation by Mamuka Jafaridze
Dinner
20.00
Rezo Kiknadze music performance or Puppet Theatre performance
10 April, Friday
10.00 – 14.30
Visit @Rustavi
Rustavi Residency, Tetsi Group and Georgian Video Art Archive
Presentation by Lekso Soselia
Lunch
15.00 – 16.00
NETWorking session @Old Key Hotel Lounge
20.00
Dinner & Goodbye party
Departures
The project is initiated by the Alt Art Foundation, Cluj and Balkan Express Network, Ljubljana, project
partners are Public Art Platform and Bouillon Group, Tbilisi, and ICA, Yerevan. With the financial support
of the Black Sea Trust - A Project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Romanian
Cultural Institute.
Local organizer: Public Art Platform, Tbilisi, pertenava@gmail.com
Contacts:
Tamara Bračič Vidmar, Balkan Express Network & Bunker Ljubljana, tamara.bracic.vidmar@bunker.si
Rarita Zbranca, AltArt Foundation, rarita@altart.org
With the kind support of: Frontline Georgia Club, Gallery Nectar Tbilisi and EEPAP/East European
Performing Arts Platform.
The Caucasus - Balkan Express project is supported by: