International Project “R’Evolution Art”
Exhibition “Just so stories”, Tbilisi, Georgia.
22 – 29 of October, Europe House Georgia
Organizers: NGO Art Travel (Odessa, Ukraine) & NGO TRAM (Tbilisi, Georgia)
Support by: European Culture Foundation (ECF)
Partners: Europe House Georgia, Meet Factory (Check Republic), Altart Foundation (Romania)
Background: In 1990-2000, a series of eastern European countries with a shared history of totalitarianism, experienced revolution: social transformation in the purpose of civil society development. In all countries that have chosen the democratic path of development, the process was accompanied by changes in the social structures of power: However, how this was achieved varied enormously, in some areas this process developed silently, and has passed almost unnoticed, but in other countries it was accompanied by massive protests and gained revolutionary character.
All the revolutions that started at the end of the last millennium had one thing in common: they were an attempt to overthrow a totalitarian or post totalitarian government, which had long held public life under control. The absence of independent media, the dominance of propaganda, sociological fraud – all those factors helped a totalitarian government to stand firmly on its feet. Under these conditions, art took the functions of free media and aired socially important, revolutionary ideas, using specific artistic language.
The so-called scientifically-artistic reflection of revolutionary events will give the possibility to determine the universal art methodology and tactics in the transitional period. Project partners from Central Europe where the revolution led to the most significant changes will share their experiences with the Eastern European countries where the revolution failed, or was left unfinished.
This meeting and collaboration of art-curators and art-managers in this project will result in the completly new view of perspectives of social development: The choice between revolution and evolution for many former Soviet countries remains highly relevant.
This Exhibition marks the second part of the International Project “R’Evolution Art”. The first phase was an introductory conference in Kiev in April, 2011.
‘Just so stories’ is the name of the Tbilisi exhibition. During the exhibition, artists from the Czech Republic, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia will be presented, with works ranging from a variety of mediums including photo projects to videos and multimedia installations. Each country is presented by its own curator with own concept.
The Czech Republic is presented by Meat Factory, curated by Dusan Zahoransky: The selection of artists draws the line between different strategies artists use to detect mental grids which defines our social milieu. Czech artists are Alena Kotzmannova and Petra Steiner, Kateřina Držková, Markéta Kinterová.
Ukraine and Belarus are curated by Kateryna Radchenko and Belarus partly by Vadim Zamirovski. The Ukrainian artists are: Glib Vysheslavskiy, Kateryna Radchenko, Sergiy Petluk, Roman Minin. From Belarus – Uriy Navitski, Yuliya Yaniuk, Marina Naprushkina, Sergey Shabohin, Vadim Zamirovski,Victor Drachov, Aleksey Matushkov, Natalia Ablozey, Aleksandr Vasukovich .
The Word Play. The Ukrainian works develop the general idea of democracy and relates it to the main political tendencies of the present day Ukraine.
Silence protest – The Belarus contribution mainly reflects the political situation in country and describes the social reflection of the current situation.
Democ(k)racy, The Art of War / Small Revolutions is the name of the Romanian section of the exhibition which is curated by Istvan Szakat. Civil disobedience emerges because there’s a difference between what you aren’t allowed to do and what you can’t do: it’s the classic gap between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Indeed, the recipes of social alchemy turn morality into ethics and then ethics into law and this progression would even seem useful at a first glance… but then we’ll observe that the legal system is not particularly efficient in making things right for the individual: we solve far more problems on moral or ethical grounds than on legal ones.
The presented Romanian artists are Vlad Nanca, Daniel Knorr and Mircea Nicoale.
The Georgian side is curated by Ana Riaboshenko and is entitled Society and stereotypes. It examines the main social tendencies, both existing and developing in the country. The artistic works are presented in different media, touching the peculiarities of the theme and but also representing it from different angles.
The presented artists are Iliko Zautashvili, Vaja Chachkhiani, Ana Riaboshenko, Lado Darakhvelidze and Rosell Heijmen.
TRAM 