Residency: GeoAIR, Tbilisi, Georgia

Dates: May 1–31

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Victoria Myronyuk is an interdisciplinary artist, performer and theater maker from Ukraine. She graduated from the Department of Culture of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv, master's program of Contemporary Stage Practice in Madrid (MPECV) and postgraduate program in artistic research in Brussels (A.PASS). Victoria's works are mostly interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of performative, participatory and visual art practices which examine the issue of ritual structures, their boundaries and potential.  

Project: During the residency at GeoAIR, Victoria will dedicate her time to the exploration of everyday urban rituals, their collection, and description. She will focus on individual and collective repetitive proceedings that are part of the city routine and which compose the unique performative constellation of Tbilisi. Based on her findings, the artist intends to create a systemized table of requisites from every ritual as well as an excursion that will embrace some of the found performances.

Residency: GeoAIR, Tbilisi, Georgia

Dates: May 11 – June 10

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Tigran Amiryan has a PhD in Literary Studies and is an independent curator and researcher of contemporary culture. For many years, his primary interest has been the narrativization of individual and collective memory in contemporary culture. Tigran’s current research and curatorial projects examine both the narrativization of personal/individual experience, artistic (fictional) representation and the history of the Self, and biographies as well as the urban space and environment which preserves the memory of peoples’ lives despite being constantly subjected to oblivion and destruction. 

Project: During his residency, Tigran will collaborate with local artists and conduct research on interethnic aspects of Tbilisi, a city well-known for its multi-nationalism for many centuries. Through the study of a variety of places in the city, Tigran aims to examine the real life of this multilingual and multi-ethnic city, its conflicts and their resolution.  

Residency: Atelier PİLLƏ, Baku, Azerbaijan

Dates: May 15 – June 5

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Koka Vashakidze is a contemporary artist based in Tbilisi, Georgia. The range of his work is extensive, from site-specific pieces to media installations. He explores the aesthetics of socio-cultural relations. Since 2013 he has been a co-editor of the art magazine Caucasus ArtMag.

Project: During his Baku residency, Koka Vashakidze plans to create a media installation in the form of an Android app with the aim of bringing the community together around the common urban problem of traffic issues. He will then present data generated by users of the app to representatives of the city administration and other influential figures in order to improve the traffic situation in Baku.

Residency: Atelier PİLLƏ, Baku, Azerbaijan

Dates: May 15 – June 5

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Born in Luhansk, Ukraine, Olexandr Yeltsin now lives and works in Kyiv. A major part of his creative work involves participatory art practices. Olexandr researches topics that interest him through dialogue and interaction. For him the process is no less important than the result. In his works he uses photography, video, audio and text. 

Project: Olexandr will do his research in Baku by taking walks alone and with a companion. In the first case, the main purpose is to perceive the city from scratch, without anyone else’s commentaries. The artist himself decides what is interesting and where to go. In the second type of walk, the companion chooses the route. Through a dialogue with his companion, the artist will learn about the city’s past, present, and possible future. The people who accompany him on the walks should be from different fields of life with different knowledge. The dialogue should be free and spontaneous. Olexandr also intends to make a number of artistic utterances based on his observations and the knowledge he acquires of the city. These may take the form of interventions in a public space, photo or video works.

Residency: Bukhara Photo Gallery, Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Dates: May 19 – June 10

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Antonina Slobodchikova was born in Minsk, Belarus. She works in a variety of media, including spatial installation, video, ready-mades and objects. Using materials from everyday life, she explores the themes of death, memory, and the representation of female experience. She has taken part in many exhibition projects in Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Germany.

Project: Antonina Slobodchikova is especially interested in exploring the historical context of the city of Bukhara, the influence of the geographical and political context on art, meetings and exchange of experience with colleagues from other countries and the art community. She plans to create an installation based on her experience in the residence.

Residency: Oberliht, Chisinau, Moldova

Dates: May 28 – July 4

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Dinara Kanybek-Kyzy has been working in the sphere of urban planning since 2015. Her main field of activity is applied urban researches, work with communities. In 2016 she curated the School of Applied Urbanistics – an interdisciplinary experimental educational programme. Her chief interest is in environmental design as a tool for planning, relationships, behavior, value systems, new meanings for the citizen-users. She was a participant in the creative group 705 from 2011–13. At present, she is a student/participant in the ArtEast School of Contemporary Art. She lives and works in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Project: During the residency, together with the host organization, Dinara Kanybek-Kyzy plans to develop a public program focused on recent urban transformations in the post-socialist cities of Central Asia, with particular attention to the pedestrian areas (the concept of a walkable city) in the central part of Chisinau but also in local neighborhoods.  

Residency: Oberliht, Chisinau, Moldova

Dates: May 28 – July 2

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Khurshed Rasulzoda is a Tajik artist and theatrical designer. He collaborates with the Mayakovsky Russian Dramatic Theatre in Dushanbe.  In 2014 he participated in the international BeArt project.  He currently works primarily with video and photography. 

Project: During his residency, Khurshed plans to create a video and photo project with the participation of the residents of the Botanica district of Chisinau about the life of the neighborhood. The artist will involve local people and document the way that a person without artistic training or specialist knowledge can describe his or her life using artistic means. The result will be the creation of a presentation using video and photo material. The most active participants will receive portraits of themselves made by the artist.

Residency: Bukhara Photo Gallery, Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Dates: July 3 – 18

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Alexandru Raevschi is an independent artist and curator. In his artistic activities, he explores questions of social life and interaction with the political system, using artistic actions, painting, sound and photo-video installation. This results in situational and contextual projects that create forms of intervention in the public realm, as well as exhibition spaces, acts of translation and archiving. His current research projects focus on the politics of invisibility, the search for a national identity by individual social groups and their reaction to changes of psychology under the influence of the contemporary paradigm.

Project: During the residence, Alexandru Raevschi will focus on studying the "other Bukhara", specifically how the Soviet architectural legacy influenced the deconstruction of the city’s traditional type of public space. It will be necessary to delineate the boundaries of the historical capital through photographic research.  It should be noted that the direction of the project correlates with the formation of social communication within the local community. The artistic research will be used to create a multimedia exhibition project.

Residency: CSM / Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art and Open Place art platform, Kyiv, Ukraine

Dates: July 6–27

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A poet, musician, performer, and curator, Maria Vilkovisky lives in her native city of Almaty, Kazakhstan.  She graduated from the Kazakh National Kurmangazy Conservatory, Musagethes Literary School for writers and Moscow Curatorial Summer School and has been curating exhibitions and educational projects in the field of contemporary art since 2013.  Maria is the co-founder of the imaginary art-institution “Creolex Centr” together with her partner, the artist Ruth Jenrbekova. 

Ruth Jenrbekova lives in Almaty, Kazakhstan and is the author of texts, graphic art and films, lecturer, performance artist and quasi-DJ. Since 1997 she has been involved in different types of artistic and curatorial activities.  Ruth is a graduate of the Department of Ecology of the Kazakh State University, Musagethes Literary School for writers, and the Moscow Curatorial Summer School. 

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Project: The “Creolex Centr” blends curatorial, artistic, activist and research positions, approaches and practices. Its participants seek to experiment with hybridism in various manifestations. Maria and Ruth are currently working on the creation of an artistic-research fanzine that is intended to become a DIY-platform for queer-feminist and decolonial, inter- and post-national imagination. It is planned that the fanzine will not only exist on paper, but also have audio and video compilations as supplements. One more task for the fanzine might be an attempt at engaged anthropological self-reflection for the post-Soviet art milieu: the working conditions of female artists, our beliefs, world-views, guidelines in life and everyday practices.

Residency: ArtEast, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Dates: July 9–22

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Vladimir Us is an artist and curator based in Chisinau, Moldova and a founding member of the Oberliht Young Artists Association. He studied art, curating, cultural management and cultural policy in Chisinau, Grenoble and Belgrade. His current work examines the processes involved in the transformation of public space in post-Soviet cities along with the need for creating an alternative network of public spaces in Chisinau.

Project: Vladimir Us plans to insert himself into a local context with similar problems in Bishkek and propose holding an open workshop for the wider public and participants in the ArtEast School. The residency will include a series of meetings with cultural and civic figures, artists, architects, urban planners and green movement representatives, film screenings and presentations, public actions and events in the city.

Residency: Suburb Platform, Yerevan, Armenia

Dates: July 10 – August 10

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Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Antonina Мelnyk graduated from Kyiv National University of Technology and Design and studied contemporary art in Kyiv and St. Petersburg from 2014-15. In 2015 she co-founded the Shvemy sewing cooperative (Kyiv - St. Petersburg) and remains a participating member; in 2016 she also joined the ReSew sewing cooperative (Kyiv). An artist, feminist, and grassroots activist, Antonina works with textiles and clothing, and also engages in theatrical activities and performance. The main topics of her artist work are non-alienated, fairly-priced labour, the alternative economy as a way of overcoming exploitation mainly of women, different types of discriminations and ways of overcoming it. Recently, she has begun to explore the idea of rethinking and re-appropriating cultural, historical and social traditions.

Born in Volzhsky, Russian Federation, Mariia Lukianova moved to St. Petersburg in 2009 to study sociology as a post-graduate, but developed a passion for modern dance and theatre. In 2011, she took part in the Russian School of Physical Theatre project. In 2015, she obtained a master’s degree in "Criticism and Curatorship of Contemporary Art" from the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St. Petersburg State University. In 2014–15 Mariia participated in Chto Delat’s School of Engaged Art. She has worked as a dancer and an actress, engaged in photography, video art and performance, and acted as a curator. A feminist, activist, artist, and participant in the Shvemy and ReSew sewing cooperatives, in 2016 Mariia moved to Kyiv.

Project: During the residency, Mariia and Antonina are planning to acquaint themselves with the social and cultural environment of the country and city. They are particularly interested in artists and art groups that work with social and political topics, grassroots and self-organized left-wing feminist initiatives, organizations dealing with minority issues and groups subjected to discrimination, and with members of such groups.  Since the two artists' specialization is clothing, textiles and craftwork, they intend to hold interactive workshops on recycling (resewing) garments, "sewing meditative practices" in public spaces, and workshops on creating activist attributes for specific actions or everyday resistance.

Residency: CSM / Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art and Open Place art platform, Kyiv, Ukraine

Dates: July 10–30

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Diana Ukhina lives and works in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan). She is a curator and director of Laboratoria C – a space for the production of art and meanings and interdisciplinary research. She is a cultural worker who represents a feminist perspective and focuses on the history and theory of culture, urban exploration, gender theory, visual culture and contemporary exhibition practices.

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Project: During her stay, Ukhina plans to concentrate on researching the transformation of urban space in Kyiv from a post-Soviet viewpoint.

Residency: Dushanbe ArtGround / Sanati Muosir, Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Dates: July 25 – August 7

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Gamal Bokobaev was born and grew up in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. He is an architect, designer, artist, curator and culturologist. He has been a member of the Artists’ Union of the Kyrgyz Republic since 1996 and in 2008 he became editor-in- chief of its periodical publication. Since 2010, he has chaired the TOLON MUSEUM public foundation.

Project: During his residence, Gamal Bokobayev will research residential districts in the central part of Dushanbe (Tajikistan) as the most typical “post-Soviet space” for gaining an understanding of the city. He will study their history, conduct graphic-analytical evaluations, and collect examples of informal citizen initiatives and the relationship between district inhabitants and commercial entities.  His research will result in the production of an art project and the organization of a seminar in which the artist will present his vision to the local community.

Residency: Dushanbe ArtGround / Sanati Muosir, Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Dates: July–August

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Aysel Amirova was born in Baku, Azerbaijan into a family of third-generation artists. She first produced paintings and poetry and in 2007 began to work in photography.  In 2009 Aysel joined the Azerbaijan Photographers Union and in 2013 she graduated from the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts as an artist-designer. In 2012 she entered the Prince's School of Traditional Arts in London, where she studied batik technique and ceramics. She participates in exhibitions in her home country and abroad.

Project: During her residency, Aysel plans to work “in the human environment” of Dushanbe (Tajikistan), to identify finer points of national and ethnic character and also to include the theme of architectural monuments, showing the transformation from ancient times to modern. By photographing daily life and its routine aspects step by step, the artist will produce her own sort of photo-journal of reality.

Residency: Suburb Platform, Yerevan, Armenia 

Dates: August 3–25 

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Olga Sosnovskaya is an artist-researcher based in Minsk, Belarus. She works with text, performance and visual practices. She has an interest in questions of celebration, pleasure and politics; body, dance, gender and post-colonial studies. She is a co-organizer of the annual initiative 'WORK HARD PLAY HARD,' a series of tours, lectures, performances, talks, workshops and parties, exploring contemporary notions of work, leisure and technology.

Project: During her residency in Yerevan, Sosnovskaya will study the local context, researching the local electronic/club scene, related bodily and choreographic practices and their political aspects, including post-colonial and gender issues. This will develop into artistic work produced with local participants. While in Yerevan she also plans to establish new connections with local artists with an eye to potential future collaborations.

She will also give a public talk on the works of contemporary Belarusian female artists relating to issues of gender, sexuality and corporeality, as well as presenting her ongoing artistic research project on the political side of celebrations.

Residency: Eurasian Cultural Alliance, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Dates: August 14 – September 3

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Lado Lomitashvili lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia. He is currently studying in the Architecture Faculty at Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (TSSA). He works in a range of techniques and media: painting, photography, book illustration, sculpture and installation. In his abstract works, architecture and product design are substantial elements. His functionless sculptural objects stress their own roles and structures. He mostly works with materials like iron, wood and fabric. Lado Lomitashvili has been a regular participant in exhibitions both in Georgia and abroad in recent years.

Project: With his architectural background and a special interest in the public space, Lomitashvili is interested in getting acquainted with Kazakhstan, its culture, and historical architectural and spatial artefacts in close collaboration with the local community. As an emerging artist, he also considers it very important to engage in an exchange of experience with colleagues at an international level.

Residency: Eurasian Cultural Alliance, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Dates: August 14 – September 3

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Oksana Chepelyk is a contemporary Ukrainian artist. She followed her studies at the Art Institute in Kyiv with post-graduate work in Moscow and Amsterdam University and new media studies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada. She also completed a post-doctoral programme at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany and a Fulbright Research Program at UCLA. She has exhibited widely internationally, including at  MOMA (New York); ART FAIR (Stockholm); MCA (Zagreb); Deutsches Historisches Museum (Berlin); ISEA 2000 (Paris); Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna) and has received a number of prestigious international awards.  In 2003 Oksana Chepelyk became leading researcher at the Modern Art Research Institute of Ukraine and since 2007 has been art-director of the International Festival of Social Sculpture. In her work Oksana uses installation,video, new media, performance, photography and public art. Her works raise problematic questions about the functioning of the social environments at a time of paradigmatic changes in the global world.

Project: During her residence in Almaty, Oksana Chepelyk plans to continue her “City Code” research. The city as a neural network, the new nervous system of the urban landscape, requires identification of its words, signs and images. In Almaty, the artist intends to collaborate with local partners and communities to create her own vision of one of the eight districts of Kazakhstan’s cultural capital by video mapping the “City Code”. This work will be presented in the public art programme of the annual Festival of Contemporary Art ARTBAT FEST, dedicated to the city of Almaty, its spirit and citizens. Additionally, Oksana plans to give a lecture entitled “The International Festival of Social Structure and Other Researches into Urbanistic Practices” to Kazakh artists participating in the School of the Art Gesture and to organize together with the school a collective performance – an urbanistic gesture-intervention, turning it into a social sculpture project, engaging in a dialogue with the local citizens in the process of artistic creation.

Residency: ArtEast, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Dates: August 9 – September 22

Nini Palavandishvili was born and grew up in Tbilisi, Georgia. After graduating from the Faculty of Public and Industrial Communication at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), in 2006 Nini joined the GeoAIR (GeoAIR) artistic initiative in Tbilisi. In her own projects Nini studies social and political contexts and their interpretation in the spheres of culture and contemporary art. She is interested in artistic practices that give rise to innovative forms and an artistic language that makes it possible to speak about political and social matters.

Project: During her residency in Bishkek, Nini Palavandishvili will organize a series of encounters and master classes, visit various institutions, and produce an artistic view of the city and its self-representation. Nini often uses the methods of ethnographic fieldwork in her projects to obtain a better insight into little-known places and establish contact with local communities. This approach will, on the one hand, enable her to see the city from its inhabitants’ point of view, to learn what makes them tick, and, on the other hand, it will become a basis for future projects such as an alternative guide to the city or a festival of public art.

Residency: Ў Gallery of Contemporary Art, Minsk, Belarus

Dates: to be confirmed

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Vyacheslav Akhunov lives and works in Tashkent. He is considered the founding father of contemporary art in Uzbekistan, a representative of the independent art scene that links two eras of non-conformist art – Soviet and post-Soviet. In the late 1970s he established his own creative movement called “Socialist Modernism.” Since 2011the Uzbekistan authorities have not allowed him to travel outside the CIS and deprived the artist of the ability to travel abroad to participate in exhibitions. He has taken part in such major exhibitions as dOCUMENTA 13, the 51st, 52 and 55th Venice Biennales, the Singapore Biennale of Contemporary Art (2006, 2013), Atlas (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid), ZKM | Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Germany), Ostalgia at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the 11th International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Istanbul, Traces du sacré (Centre Pompidou, 2008) and the Centre for Contemporary Art (Munich, Germany)

Project: During his residency, Vyacheslav Akhunov intends to realize the project “Derivativeness as a lack of knowledge?” In the project, the artist compares the practices of Uzbek artists with those of artists from different countries and studies derivativeness in the art of Uzbekistan, art devoid of the logic and methodology of a modern system of knowledge and disciplinary divisions, one that does not reflect the main symptoms of its time and specific historical moments in forms new for the art of Uzbekistan, marking the end of the colonial era, the problem of a post-colonial cultural identity with the principles for its formation and representation, a turn towards a decolonial discourse.

Residency: Ў Gallery of Contemporary Art, Minsk, Belarus

Dates: to be confirmed

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Nikita Kadan was born in Kyiv and graduated from the Painting Department of the National Academy of Fine Art and Architecture. A member of the R.E.P. group of artists and the Khudsovet curatorial and activist association, his work has been exhibited at the Kunsthaus in Zurich, Museum of Contemporary Art (Antwerp), Castello di Rivoli–Museo d’ Arte Contemporanea (Turin), Palazzo Reale (Milan) and Zamek Ujazdowski( Warsaw). He participated in the 14th Istanbul Biennale and the 56th Venice Biennale (Ukrainian pavilion). Nikita Kadan’s works are in the collections of the Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich), M HKA (Antwerp), Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation (MUMOK) (Vienna), Military History Museum (Dresden), Krasnoyarsk Museum Centre and Galeria Arsenal (Białystok). He lives and works in Kyiv.