Exchange Academy: Program Week Two 9-15 April

During three weeks in April 2008 a group of Georgian, Dutch, Turkish and Armenian artists created platform for exchange of information, brainstorm sessions, group and individual projects and research on and around the theme: contemporary art archive. This project was realized in collaboration with the team of Georgian Contemporary Art Archive ‘Archodrome’ and took place in the Silk Museum in Tbilisi. At the end of the working period of three weeks the project opened to public with final presentation. The public and art sector of Tbilisi were involved in the project through lectures, workshops and artists talks.

To avoid the known setting of the artists being invited somewhere distant place for short while, in order to produce quick work that concludes into an exhibition, of which not much remains after the departure of the artists, we decided to go the other way and change the setting. Suggestion was that the invited artists would work on a real problem that is present in Georgia, namely lack of archive or a base where the information and experience about contemporary art can be brought together. This information can have various forms, including collection and registration the projects like ‘Exchange Academy’. Thus the question was to think of ‘archiving’ the project like we were part of as a process of the project itself.

Concept and organization GeoAIR, Georgia:
Freya van Dien (NL); Onno Dirker (NL): Sophia Tabatadze (NL/GEO)

Participating Artists:
Vahram Aghasyan (ARM); Can Altay (TR); Lado Darakhvelidze (GEO); Onno Dirker (NL); Ergün Erkoçu (NL);
Kote Jincharadze (GEO); Kote Sulaberidze & Nino Chilashvili (GEO); Sophia Tabatadze (Geo/NL); Peter Zuiderwijk (NL)

Participatants from “Archidrome” - Contemporary Art Archive, Georgia
Nini Palavandishvili; Ani Chorgolashvili; Lali Pertenava; Sophia Kilasonia; Sophia Tabatadze.

Participant from State Silk Museum, Georgia
Nino (Chuka) Kuprava

Financial support:

Stroom, the Hague (NL)

NCDO, (NL)

European Cultural Foundation (NL)

Monday, April 14, 2008

Program Week Two 9-15 April

Week Two / plan, research

DAY 14 / Tuesday 15 April

DAY 13 / Monday 14 April
Team-session at Silk museum
Here Lali and Ani from Archidrome will be present to register (write and photograph) the course of artists’ discussions.

DAY 12 / Sunday 13 April

LECTURE

Tbilisi Architecture of 1920-ies by Maya Mania
DAY 11 / Saturday 12 April

DAY 10 / Friday 11 April
Onno Dirker

DAY 09 / Thursday 10 April
Point talks by participating artists
Discussion meeting at Kote Sulaberidze's studio

DAY 08 / Wednesday 9 April