Georgia – Sakartvelo

It is a tasty country. Because of nature, food, culture and people. Our friends allow us to see real contemporary Georgia. History of Georgia is very similar to Polish. For ages we had to fight for our culture and our identity. Georgia is not in Asia but not in Europe either. Georgia is a place „in between”. Between West and East, between North and South. It is special, unique and magic place...
We would like to see how to develop Georgian-European partnership in culture actions. There is a lot of possibilities, because Georgian artists are very creative and they think differently than Europeans.
So, we meet a lot of great artists totally undiscovered in Europe. They also would like to know more about European culture and arts.

Now, thanks to Step Beyond Mobility Program we had a chance to set up some great multicultural art-activities. We would like to see more Georgian art in Europe and European art in Georgia. Now we have relatively good and fruitful contacts so that it will become possible.

We travelled through West Georgia – he have seen differences between other regions – Ajaria, Kahetia, Svanetia, Kartvelo... All these regions are different – people speak different languages and sometimes they have different religions. But all of them are Georgians!
We have seen the beautiful Black Sea costs, we have seen the never acquired Svanetia, we have drunk healthy water of Borjomi, we have felt the mysticism of Mccheta, David Gareja monasteries ...
We had a taste of Georgia...

We met with artists in Tbilisi, Svanetia Region (Mestia, Ushguli), Borjomi and we explored David Gareja monastery. We also did some cooperation with Polish artist Joanna Warsza during preparation to Artzona Festival (artzona.pl/).

Now, we start (in cooperation with Ocalenie Foundation) our Georgian-Polish social art-networking site: ...

The first thought, when arrived in Italy, was that it was very calm: streets, people, no aggression, that I’ am so used to in Georgia, so it feels, like you really reached the first class and you are aloud to stay here for a whole week!

Florence, which I went quickly through, was much smaller then I have imagined in my mind. THE CITY OF THE RENESAINCE, which has been so revolutionary some centuries ago, was a small tourist place and everything was turning around Jesus and Catholic Church.

The solution with the candles was really funny, in Georgia we just recently had problems with electricity and many people didn’t pay for it. I thought if we could have the same system in our churches may be people will learn to pay for their lights. What I like very much that one could observe how much one lamp costs and how much light it gives and also how many minutes you can let it burn for 3 euros for example. One could illuminate the whole space with this mechanism, if the believe was strong and rich enough. Another automat that I saw I thought it might be a telephone to call the god. Why not? If our Church in Georgia has a special service on mobile phones, where you can download into your mobile phone prays,why shouldn’t one have a possibility directly reach the god and ask him to change the political circumstances for example?

Enough with the religion, let’s go to politics. The opening of the Exhibition ‘Progressive Nostalgia’, artists from post Soviet Union are standing together with Italian friends! The director of the Museum is giving a speech, the Russian Curator is giving speech, but nobody translates it in English or Russian or as we sad later at least in Armenian. I asked my Italian friend to translate, but she said that it’s not interesting, just official welcome speech. During the dinner, after the opening, we were seating together with artists from Russia, Kazakhstan and Armenia and another ‘welcome speech’ started, but this time it was very long. We could not stop laughing after each word, that we would understand, like ‘internationale’, ‘revolutionare’ etc. We were trying to get a picture what was it all about, but there were some words, that didn�...

It's almost three month ago already, but it's a joy to remember these days.

That was my first time in The Hague, I have been to Amsterdam, but The Hague is totally different – calmer, more businesslike, less commercial having not so many tourists around and with deep historical roots.

Anyway my aim wasn't to visit the city, my aim was the conference, but I believe there is no better place to talk about human rights, then The Hague – a city where there are the International Criminal Court and the International Peace Palace. All the lectures were very interesting and between and after the lectures there were live discussion about the topic. There were people from all over Europe – teachers, professors – it was really interesting to hear their opinion. Also very interesting was the debate in Leiden University, presented by the Student Association of International Relations Studies.

The Hague has now a special place in my heart. Thanks to everyone, who was involved in this project and thanks to Step Beyond for the support!

Cat Effekt project crew, the filmmakers and photographers Gustavo Jahn and Melissa Dullius and cultural researcher Iana Stefanova had in 31 days in Moscow an intense period of research, exchange and practices.

In the first two weeks we were establishing the basis of a network, daily meeting artists, filmmakers, students, cultural operators living in Moscow. They have given us precious information and were open to show us aspects of their life and work in Moscow.

Our perception of the mechanisms of this huge metropolis and it´s inhabitants, summed with the generous feedback of the great people we met gave body to the second part of the Cat Effekt Project, this being filming and collecting sounds that will be combined into an experimental fiction film.

The co-thinkers and friends we made will naturally meet again in future cooperations. We are willing to welcome during this year, in name of our organisation LaborBerlin, the visit of at least one of our Russian partners.

The Step Beyond mobility grant enabled us to face ourselves with a different cultural environment where we had the chance to encounter the openness and generosity of the people there, in the realisation of our project. This was even more important, given the context of our working methods, which were based on the idea to act in a more intuitive manner, in an intense, limited time frame. Within these parameters, all the filmmakers, artists and cultural operators we have met, had curiosity and enthusiasm to take part in a project which involved a dialogue between different cultures and in particular those of film. The cohesive positive experience of working together followed naturally with plans to develop future co-operations.

At the end of last June I was in Sofia for the first time to participate in “Water Tower” festival. My travel became possible thanks to the grant from ECF and OSI.

After one hour of my arrival Nia Pushkariova was driving me under heavy rainfall to little town Bankya to show one of the venues. On the way we were discussing the idea of using abandoned public spaces for art events...

It was a pleasure to see how the members of “IME” and volunteers were working and assisting the invited artists for realization of their art works.
I presented my “Landscape of City Noise” audio-visual installation.
An important part of the festival was debate between participant artists, invited experts and representatives of local art organizations and municipality.
The main topic was financial aspects in the field of contemporary non-commercial art. Speakers were presenting their past experience reflecting the topic. I had chance to present “Kobalt” NGO past activities and future plans, as well as 5th Gyumri International Biennial (2006) and its impact on Armenian contemporary art scene and on local society.
Keneth Hey showed various ways of cooperation with foundations and business sector.From the presentation of Sharon Bailey (ISIS) I learn how it is possible to involve local community in the work of art center. IME is a good example how to work with volunteers ….
There was a lot of useful information about fund raising and organizational methods in all presentations.
Besides I had chance to see the beauty of Sofia and friendly people.
I visited a few museums and galleries in the City. “Exhibition of the BAZA Award for Contemporary Art 2010 Nominees” at Sofia City Art Gallery gave a good possibility to enrich my knowledge about new art generation in contemporary art scene of Bulgaria.
“Water Tower” festival was an event which gave possibility for communication, exchange of experience and cooperation development. It's amazing how all the participants from various countries became friends in a few days.
During discussions with our partner organizations we decided to continue our collaboration and organize more art events focusing on cultural and architectural heritage in the changing Europe. We decided that “Kobalt” wil...

Travel satisfies different kinds of interests (somehow) – beginning from routine life, lifestyle, cultural peculiarities and most important - people. That’s why just wandering, walking in the streets, some phrases heard during that, meeting different people in cafes and talking with them make more possible to feel specifics of different cultures, than visits to famous museums, where brilliant artworks are preserved. Therefore art criticism is my first profession and at some points I even spent a few nights in museums.

It was a surprise for me as well, when for the first time being in Paris for only four days, I passed the Louvre museum and instead walked along the left and right banks of the Seine. I knew, visiting the Louvre meant not seeing Paris at all; great masters of art, whose paintings I collected during years and now I keep at home, will forgive me for that.

What is the first thing that I do when arriving to an unknown city? Of course, initially I am a tourist searching for the exotic of particular places; I begin with sightseeing and afterwards going to suburbs. I adore small streets, where you can get lost; I search for difference in cultures, but very happy when discovering something similar, I like to taste traditional cuisine – even sometimes it is possible to regret about my “wrong” decision, but prefer to stay hungry than eat already known (due to globalization) food, but sometimes it happens even that way.

Especially I like to return to the cities, where I have already discovered “main highways” and have a chance to explore the details. It is becoming yours, with known faces and situations. This year when going to Cannes via Istanbul I met again the old men with specific mustaches and medals, I had a feeling of meeting my grandfather.

What I gain from travel? Huge energy, despite I spent lots of it there. Experience – professional or of life. Emotional and intellectual reserve which stays all lif...

Staffed with a great multilingual team of active people (Nora Galfayan, Anna Barseghian and employees such as Vahe Budumyan), Utopiana, an Armenian contemporary arts organisation with their offices in Yerevan, invited me to present work at the Gyumri Biennale and give an artist's talk in Yerevan. I returned full of impressions.

My understanding of Armenia is that of a newly independent state with a strong desire to hold onto its traditions. This sometimes presents itself as nationalism and little enthusiasm for contemporary art. Utopiana and Gyumri Biennale are great exceptions.

Like the most advanced scientists, the scene of artists I was introduced to have the desire to find out all the latest cultural developments in the world and celebrate cultural exchanges. These are neither promoted nor financed by their government, and given that it is difficult for Armenians to acquire visas, they feel isolated and organise events with no budget.

The Guymri Biennale is an example of zero budget but lots of good will. I performed to a room packed with people, children, art-students, artists, curators, and the response was incredible. When I spoke to individuals in English (my second language), many did not understand me; when I performed in my artist language, the response was immense. It was a real pleasure to have such an immediate relationship with the audience. My talk was also successful.

Given that I do live performances, constant travel is essential for the international dissemination of my work, which is expensive; ECF's support made my journey to Armenia possible. I am in touch with all over 10 people there now and plan to invite some to participate in my projects. Two curators who were there are inviting me to work with them, and further plans are now in discussion for me to go on a longer residency with Utopiana.

My frames show the diversity of these exchanges because the choirs went to four different regions. From Tbilisi to Black Sea in Batoumi going through Caucasian mountains in Mestia.

As we stayed with the locals, we had a total immersion in the language, the local culture. As French, we had a lot of surprises in view of the Georgian every day life.
They will appear in the documentary film like commas, breathings.

I concentrated my point of view on the Georgian polyphonies specificities and on the hanging down (oral transmission with repetitions and imitation).
In Georgia, few things can be explained…
This confrontation with our learning habits is showed in my frames.
I show the incredible progression of everyone and of the group in view of the difficulty of the language and in view of the loss of marks because of the oral tradition.

The thread was Shavnabada (Georgian polyphonic choir) we met for the first time in Tbilisi at the beginning of our trip and we met again in Guria at the end of our trip.
Shavnabada was this witness, this barometer of our learning.

Our cooperation project must continue in 2009 and 2010 with the welcome of Shavnabada in France for a creation project between Georgian polyphonies, Corsican polyphonies and contemporary polyphonies.
My documentary film will be an important visual story in order to facilitate their visit.

I attended the Magic Lantern Society's 8th International Convention in April 2009 with the aid of funding by the ECF’s mobility Fund, STEP beyond.

The convention was a great opportunity to meet experts in the pre-cinema field. My work originated in interactive digital media but through my research I have become interested in non-digital examples of interactive media and moving image technologies. I was interested in seeing live Magic Lantern performances and to visit exhibitions of lanterns and other older media.

The convention surpassed my expectation. A highlight was the trade fair which itself doubled as a separate more hands-on exhibition with many examples one could touch, explore and interact with. With these explorations came meeting and talking with people who knew these objects and their history inside out.

I had the pleasure of witnessing a small box housing “Peppers ghost”. This is a technique used by magicians and was controversial when it was discovered in the 19th century. The exhibitor was at hand to explain and show how it worked. This seemingly complex technique has stayed with me and I hope to use it within my work in the future.

I was fortunate to meet many people who knew pre-cinema history inside out - not only magic lanterns, but also pop-up books, camera obscura, magic, early photography and more. If I was speaking to someone who didn’t have answers to my queries, he/she would point to someone who could answer them with expertise.

Attending this convention inspired me greatly and has encouraged me to continue further into pre-cinema non-digital processes and interactive works. I have made many contacts that I have already begun to correspond with in regards to my next projects. This conference opened up new as well as solidified older virtual contacts.