Exchange Academy

Organized by GeoAIR team ‘Exchange Academy’ project included three groups:

1. Group of international visiting artists;
2. Team of ‘Archidrome' - Contemporary Art Archive;
3. Team of ‘Georgian State Silk Museum’;

Main questions of ‘Exchange Academy’ project were:

Is it achievable, and if yes how, for one person or a group of people to use the experience of the other people/group and start their project from step further, with the help of already accumulated experience.

Project setting:

Group of artists, architects, and designers from the Netherlands, Turkey and Armenia were invited to Tbilisi, Georgia to work in collaboration with group of Georgian Artists. The artist group consisted of nine people. The project duration was three weeks.

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.

As there is the group ‘Archidrome-Contemporary Art Archive’ working on these issues in Tbilisi, it was only natural to couple these two groups. From the organizational point of view these two could fill each other up. Archidrome team would give/share the insights about what is going on in Georgia, why there is a need to have an archive, what kind of an archive is being created by Archidrome, etc. And on the other hand the fresh look from the visiting and local artists about this problems, how to build an interesting archive, what questions should the archive answer, should an archive have a form and place, or should it remain as a concept in a virtual setting.

And third one, the organization was State Silk Museum. This organization served as a location where the project took place and raised it’s own questions: how to give a new life to and existing and aging institution. How to collaborate with young public and artists dealing with contemporary issues.

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This project was made possible with support of:

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); Onno Dirker (NL); Ergün Erkoçu (NL); Peter Zuiderwijk (NL);
Kote Jincharadze (GEO); Kote Sulaberidze & Nino Chilashvili (GEO); Sophia Tabatadze (Geo/NL); Lado Darakhvelidze (GEO).

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); Step Beyond, European Cultural Foundation (NL).

Invitation