Exchange Academy

2-23 April 2008, Silk Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia

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)


Team

Team

Monday, April 14, 2008

Program Week One 2-8 April

Arrival and Orientation


DAY 07 / Tuesday 8 April
Team-session at Silk museum (about plan)
Here Lali and Ani from Archidrome will be present to register (write and photograph) the course of artists’ discussions.

DAY 06 / Monday 7 April
Team-session with all at Silk museum (about first impressions, observations, possibilities).
Here Lali and Ani from Archidrome will be present to register (write and photograph) the course of artists’ discussions.

DAY 05 / Sunday 6 April
Visiting Rustavi – former industrial city next to Tbilisi and Mtskheta - old capital of Georgia, historic site next to Tbilisi.

DAY 04 / Saturday 5 April
11.00 City-tour (by Marshutka – mini bus), to Signagi, 2 hours away of Tbilisi an old beautiful village that is now being turned into the tourist attraction – being pumped up, painted, renovated etc. It is also said that the renovation is quite façade connected and things are just made into a better display.
In Signagi they have also moved Pirosmanis paintings into the newly made exhibition spaces. Pirosmani is the artist from the beginning of the 19th century. He is self-educated naive artist, surely worthwhile seeing.

DAY 03 / Friday 4 April
Walking in the city.
Visiting the area of railway station and market, around Agmashenebeli street.

DAY 02 / Thursday 3 April
12.00 Breakfast in Silk Museum
• Meeting participants of April Project, Archidrome and Silk museum team at the Silk museum (workspace).
• Touring around the Silk museum building, seeing what part of it we can use.
• Touring the permanent exhibition of the Silk museum. Tour guide is former director of the museum who saved most of the collection and still proudly working there and is meaningful within the museum.
• Introduction to our project presentation by Sophia and Onno
Diner all together in restaurant “Rachis Ubani” (Archidrome, April Project and Silk museum team).






DAY 01 / Wednesday 2 April
Artists group arrives
Meeting some participants, relaxed dinner at home, not doing much this day, waiting for the group to be complete.
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