US Embassy in Georgia,
Embassy of Italy in Georgia,
GENERAL INFORMATIONAL SPONSOR FINANCIAL
Informational support Welcome to Geogia

Curator: Ana Riaboshenko
Co curator: Lika Dadiani
Technical Assistants:
Irakly Ivanishvili
Nika Tabukashvili
Sergo Arutiunov
Mikhail Svanidze
Project director: Alexander Adamia
Consultant: George Kaladze
International Curators:
Lydia Matthews
Vittorio Urbani

Special thanks to Viktor Misiano

PARTICIPANTS:

The tendency of advancement of the Modern Art, encompassing the entire world, politely passes around such dormant countries as Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and some others situated remotely from the center of developments. Those occasional, if any, absolutely unrelated bursts/attempts of organizing public cultural events in the field of contemporary art fade away, usually, without any trace, leaving some pleasant, or not so much, memories for the artists participating in the particular one.

These, and other numerous reasons, mothered the idea of Project One Stop, born not so much to change the world, but rather to pull together neighboring countries and open up the undoubtedly therein existing potential to the rest of the world with the singly prospect of defining own, personal path within the Modern Art.

The choice of venue was made with aforementioned in mind, to please the local conservative public – the street, more so, the main street. The core of life in the southern cities, as Tbilisi is, lies in the streets, among myriad of enthusiasts or bystanders. Rustaveli Avenue or, more specifically, the area between the two subway stops – Rustaveli and Freedom Square – was picked specifically because of that.

The entire spring and summer 2007 was dedicated to communicating to the participating artists, sending all sorts of information, discussing future artworks. The Participating artists were tasked according to the dominating principle of the Project to incorporate into their artwork the historic, cultural and social features of this street and the city in its entirety, and, to the maximum extent possible, contribute one’s own individuality into the existing urban arrangement.

At the end, fifteen projects have been chosen from so different countries as Georgia, the Netherlands, Iran, the United States, Azerbaijan, the Great Britain, Armenia, Austria, Kazakhstan, Italy, the Russian Federation, and Slovenia.

As usually in every project, especially the art one, the most of original artworks underwent transformation at the site. Some of the works have been completely changed by artists – e.g. the Vorobiovs, upon on-site visit to Tbilisi, have abandoned the original idea and embarked on a new, more appropriate project – “Photo Session with Street Cleaners”, “Orange Evolution”.

In light of ever increasing number of fountains in Georgia, the need for creating one more by Charles Goldman – “The Grand Font” – has outdated itself and was replaced by “PARAFONTs” – kind of parasitic fountains inviting mixed opinions from different social and political strata.

Sara Radjaei, who planned a project in McDonalds, situated in the heart of Rustaveli Square – a type of promotion of Georgian classic author Shota Rustaveli, with literature club meeting and posting fliers with the excerpts from poet’s creation, rejected the idea after McDonalds refused to offer the space at the very last moment. In the end, Sara reflected on T-shirts “Reverse Side” of her project – hurriedly printed invitation with original spelling errors, which, according to author, is inalienable part of such projects.

Some confusion among several official agencies was caused by the project Freezing of Architects, in reality an Afghan carpet that was presented by the authors as a flying carpet dragged by the same through all the openings, laid down only to sit on it and drink wine, confining themselves within its boundaries.

Success followed the project of artist from St. Petersburg Andrei Rudjev and Peter Belyi – “New Rust”, reinventing the underpass, preserving on the walls multi-color heritage of various kiosk.

Apparently, the most massive was the project by the British artists at the Pushkin Park on the Freedom Square. They were handing out free tea to everybody, organized performances, collected photos for the “Memory Bus”, made sketches of local dogs to exchange with British ones, swept streets and entrances of the apartment buildings leaving behind cards with the inscription: “I am a British tourist. I cleaned your entrance. Thank you!”

And, of course, the classics of the contemporary art – the IRWINs with their new performance: phrase “WAS IST KUNST” created using 100 soldiers.

Some invited artists could not participate due to various reasons and they were replaced by others – the fact that affected the event not necessarily positively, though there definitely were some successes. In particular, the video project by Ali Khasanov “HAMAM” was well received, though the setting was inappropriate. Also, interesting project by Norene Leddy “Aphrodite”, replacing at the very last moment Sasha Chavchavadze’s “Museum of Matches”, was not entirely fitting in.

There was unfortunate occasion involved, as well – the project by Flavio Favelli had to be dropped as a result of bureaucratic problems.

Another unfortunate fact was that due to short stay of Aaron Gatch and Tigran Khachatryan, their interesting projects “Time Machine” and “Glory to the Labor”, respectively, did not enjoy much attention.

Separately standing, but completely following the spirit of the Project, were works by Ingeborg Schtrobl and Tatia Skhirtladze “Songs to Buildings” and by the group GANGART ‘Yellow Pages”, with the latter undergoing modifications due to, once again, local bureaucracy.

To summarize the results of the Project One Stop, with all Yays and Nays associated with it, despite misinterpretation by official institutions, media and general public, the latter being, in fact, demonstrating the genuine interest to the events, we can claim one thing: the process has started, the ball got rolling, no matter how banal this may sound.

It still has to be acknowledged that the Project came to reality due to crucial assistance of some state institutions and technical assistants.

I do believe that success of each and every endeavor, more so of such a nature, if not entirely that to the large degree depends on the way it is presented to the public – something imposed, brutal is equally forcefully rejected and forgotten. Therefore, in such a delicate area as art, moreover, a contemporary art, everything has to happen undetected, subtly, until one day you wake up in the morning and understand that it is everywhere, around you, and you can’t live without it.

Ana Riaboshenko

Seriously Funny: One Stop for Civic Dialogue
Lydia Matthews

For centuries urban planners have designed major thoroughfares in cities, ones that become identified with the heart and soul of a particular place. Streets like Rustavelli Avenue bustle with a constant flow of human and technological energies, transport vehicles, commerce, social exchange and lively acts of civic protest. The avenue functions as the psycho-geographic spinal chord for the city’s social body. Monumental buildings along Rustavelli manifest Tbilisi’s unique local histories and cultures, while its commercial storefronts and billboards register how global political forces, new technologies and foreign values constantly intervene within the visible environment and its invisible infrastructures-- not to mention within the complex psyches of its inhabitants. Each day locals, immigrants and tourists can find solace there through time-honored and deeply familiar spaces, images and social rituals. But inevitably the mundane and comforting butts up against something profoundly alien, sometimes entertaining while other times producing deeply disturbing effects. If one looks attentively, the uncanny abounds along this epic street.

The three North American artists participating in TRAM’s “One Stop” project capitalize on this uncanny, fluctuating and globally inflected social space. Their projects co-opt materials and objects that are common within all contemporary urban environments: civic fountains, industrial detritus, fashionable women’s shoes, cellular phone and video devices, surveillance technologies, battery-generated loud speaker systems. But in each case, these U.S.-based artists combine the familiar with the weird as well as the serious with the silly to produce deliberately destabilizing works. Like many emerging artists born in the late 1960s/ 70s, they demonstrate a sense of personal agency through “Do It Yourself” (DIY) methods, widely accessible and often recycled materials and technologies, research-oriented creative processes, and collaborative exchanges with individuals and organizations from a variety of professional fields. Their carefully crafted formal works are meant to disrupt both the social and aesthetic expectations of their audience, posing unanswered questions and provoking debate about thorny political issues of our time.

Charles Goldman’s “le Gran Font,” a monumental pyramidal fountain made from discarded industrial oil barrels, conjures the glorified tradition of historic European public fountains while pointing to the overwhelming ominous omnipresence of our petroleum-based global economy. A simple electric pump forces a pool of water to re-circulate unrelentingly, and these uniformly shaped oil barrels spewing their rivulets bear more resemblance to pissing drunken sailors than they do to an ideally sculpted Poseidon of yesteryear. Still, there is a carefully considered formal elegance within Goldman’s recycled and democratically hand-crafted piece: he simply remakes the fountain in our own current socio-political image. The proximity of the U.S.-funded Caspian oil line and the horrifying battles over petroleum resources throughout the Middle East are not lost on Goldman, and this work implicates his own historical and political position within consumer culture. The fact that he makes his work collaboratively in a workshop-style process, however, invites not a solitary reflection on this contemporary condition, but rather a transnational, collective perspective. How might we use art as a pretext for coming together to grapple with environmental and political conditions that we share?

Norene Leddy’s “The Aphrodite Project: Platforms” takes on a different but equally ubiquitous contemporary phenomenon: the challenging role of female sexuality in contemporary society, and the violence leveled against women as a result of hostility or ambivalence towards sex work. Like Goldman, Leddy turned to historical precedents for instruction, conducting scholarly research in Cyprus on the cult of Aphrodite and her sexual priestesses. Recognizing prostitutes’ vital role in civic society, she became inspired by ancient sandals that had the words “follow me” inscribed on their sole. Leddy updated these shoes to service contemporary sex workers by collaborating with the workers themselves, technological advisors and a professional cobbler. Together they designed and crafted a functional prototype of sexy sandals with Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) surveillance and video technologies embedded into their platform soles. These “platforms” offer sex workers a means of voicing their desires and professional needs: the shoes visually allure customers, protect against violence through alarm systems, effectively advertise to established clients through internet connectivity, and link to supportive NGOs who work for sex workers’ rights. In performances wearing these sandals—as well as asking her audience to literally “try walking in prostitutes shoes”-- she aims to playfully provoke debates about the legal status of prostitution in the civic arena and raise awareness of issues that sex workers face today. Her aesthetic work not only includes performing and displaying the shoes on the street, but also hosting open forums with local audiences and organizations in a variety of cities.

The Center for Tactical Magic (CTM), co-founded by Aaron Gach, brings their “Ghost Machine” to Tbilisi. Another DIY project brought about by an entity that fashions itself as an anonymous cross between ninja masters, an old-fashioned magicians and stealth private eyes, “Ghost Machine” consists of a loud speaker system that attaches to the side of a pre-existing street pole, operated by a simple fan that harnesses wind power. The contraption appears like a cross between a Russian Constructivist piece from the 1920s and something that one might find in a popular theatrical side-show. The subversive “magic” in this work is that the wind power generates loud sounds that conjure the moans of the dead. As if channeling the groans and howling of those who have been wronged by the State, this haunting machine oscillates between being psychically disturbing, physically annoying and absurdly funny. CTM’s vision is to situate it directly in front of an institution where State Power is exercised (for example, a police station or the Hall of Justice) so that the voices of those who have been “silenced”—often violently-- may resound once again. Aware of Rustavelli Avenue as the revolutionary gathering ground for the region’s most significant past and present political protests, CTM pays homage to the proud history of radical democracy in action. In particular, the machine acts as a tribute to the history of Georgian resistance to unbridled State power, which continues today, as we witnessed once again here in early October. As in many of their previous projects, CTM galvinizes social interactions, thus focusing debate around particular issues while allowing people to recognize that political engagement is not only necessary but can be enjoyable, as well.

Through their works, these artists propose a few ground rules for aesthetic civic engagement, demonstrating what Joseph Beuys dubbed “Social Sculpture” (and what a variety of critics more recently call “relational aesthetics,” and “art as social practice.”) When disturbed by a social condition in daily life—in this case various forms of violence--they boldly imagine aesthetic works that catalyze dialogue about the possibility of alternative scenarios. They nurture a historical consciousness about how the present is inflected by artistic precedents, cultural memories, and personal stories. A sense of human agency is gained through their modest DIY sensibility: these artists use ordinary materials and celebrate a democratized creative process. Rather than make the work alone, they often find others to help and honor their expertise as collaborators. Social practice artists don’t focus exclusively on creating fetishized consumer objects, but instead value the creativity and critical consciousness unlocked by their innovative research methods. Above all, the success of their work is centered around the vitality of the civic dialogue it playfully sparks.