Tbilisi Photo Festival & MagiC Carpets

Subtropical Cultures

Art Residence Program









The residency Program was implemented in partnership with the European platform Magic Carpets and The Tbilisi Photo Festival and aims to support contemporary visual artists.

In the context of acute ethnic conflicts, it is art that can create the "method", the mechanism that enables the non-superficial understanding and contextualization of the conflict and facilitate creative exchange between artists.

Context

27th of September commemorates ‘the Fall of Sukhumi’, when in Sukhumi the Independence Day is celebrated. This date, as well as almost everything that deals with Abkhazia, is infiltrated with radicalism, linearity and mutual exclusivity. None of the sides delves into the causes and the history of the conflict. The informational vacuum and politicized slogans only reinforce the nationalist narratives. The reality is that the radicalism between the parties rules out any possibility for a dialogue; there are generations growing up in Sukhumi and Tbilisi who have no experience of contact with each other, they just know the vilified archetypes of each other.

The Project Aim

The residency program is part of the Subtropical Cultures project. The aim of the project is to lay the groundwork for rethinking recent history through art, which, in addition to many issues, will challenge the existing nationalist narratives and provide new means of discussing these issues.

The residency program allows the artists to explore the essence of the conflict, to analyze it in depth, and to reflect on the context behind domineering stereotypes.

Residency Program Conditions

Under the residency program, each artist will receive a residency stipendium in the amount of GEL 1,500 and a production budget.

The competition is open to artists of any age working in photography, video art, documentary film and new media.

The duration of the project is two months.

Project Experts

With the aim to analyze and understand the conflict and historical context better, the artists will be given an opportunity to collaborate with the researchers within the framework of the residency program. Invited researchers will work with the artists and provide regular consultations. This will be an experiment in combining the research and visual self-expression with each other.

Presentation and exhibition

At the end of the project, public group presentation of the works created within the residency program will be held at the Tbilisi Museum of Photography and Multimedia. The format of the event will be determined at the final stage, taking into account the existing bans and restrictions on the spread of the coronavirus.

Participation

The deadline for participation is September 17, 2020.

To participate in the competition, please send:

The cconcept of the work to be created within the project (maximum 500 words)

Portfolio of works in PDF format (maximum 5 MB)

CV (with contact details - e-mail address, telephone)

Documents should be sent to info@tbilisiphotofestival.com with the subject line - "MagiC Carpets Residency Program".

Additional information about the organizers

MagiC Carpets

MagiC Carpets is an artistic platform supported by Creative Europe that brings together 15 cultural organizations with an aimto support young artists. As part of the project, the artists travel to a country unfamiliar to them, create new works in collaboration with the local artists and social groups, and thus develop cultural activism and engagement. The platform is implemented within the framework of the European program with the support of "Creative Europe" 2014-2020.

Tbilisi Photo Festival

Tbilisi Photo Festival is the first photo festival in Georgia and the South Caucasus. It was founded in 2010 by the French photographer, currently the photo editor of the French daily newspaper Liberation Lionel Charier and the Georgian curator and journalist Nestan Nizharadze.

The festival was created with the support of the prestigious Arles Photo Festival Les Rencontres d’Arles (France) and soon, gained a reputation as the leading regional cultural manifestation.

For the last 10 years, Tbilisi Photo Festival has been using the medium of photography to reflect on the most acute problems of modernity.

The identity of the festival was determined by this approach. In addition, the photo festival has become a real hub of international photography, which, showcases the works of the renowned fgiures of the world photography and also supports significantly the regional emerging photography.