Art Prospect Festival: Memory Threads: Museum and Neighborhood
Organized by the State Silk Museum in Tbilisi, Georgia
27 October — 4 November, 2018
Open call for participation
Artists based in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan are invited to apply for the Art Prospect festival “Memory Threads: Museum and Neighborhood” and implement public artworks.
Additionally, artists based in Georgia are invited to apply for creating and implementing artistic tours of the neighborhood as part of the festival.
For submitting an application, please complete the form on this link: https://goo.gl/forms/UYzvJpVPhAbp98Pr2
Application deadline: 10 August, 2018 / 18:00 Georgia time
The festival concerns the relationship of museums and neighborhoods in general, and in this particular case the special history and layers the Silk Museum has in its surrounding. Initially various buildings of the Caucasian Sericulture Station used to stand here, mulberry trees for silkworms are scattered in the neighborhood, the museum building that was built for this museum specifically is the only remaining one with initial function, keeping the memory of the place. However, there is very little involvement and connection between the neighborhood and the museum nowadays. The thread of the festival will follow works (interventions, artistic tours, etc.) within the museum, in its outer spaces and surrounding public, or private spaces, inviting the neighbors to get involved and connect with the museum. With this approach the festival will also deal with the topic of public space and privatization in Tbilisi, which has been rather problematical in previous decades as public spaces gradually disappear, and it will seek the role art and cultural institution can have in critically analyzing it. The festival will be a big step towards some of current questions the Silk Museum asks itself as a cultural institution - what knowledge does the museum keep about its surrounding and what new stories can it collect and store about the neighborhood? What role can it have in the neighborhood?
The festival will cover production costs and honorariums per project, and additionally in case of artists based outside of Georgia - travel to Tbilisi from above mentioned countries, accommodation for 10 days and per diem.
The festival will take place at the State Silk Museum, inside the building and outside including its garden, yard and neighboring territories. For the festival the museum partners with the Local Administrative Body of Didube District where the museum is located, as well as with neighboring Mushtaid Garden and the Union of the Deaf of Georgia, both of which are interested to host art projects during the festival.
Curators of the festival: Data Chigholashvili, Nino (Chuka) Kuprava, Nini Palavandishvili and Mariam Shergelashvili.
The festival is a part of the Art Prospect and is supported by CEC ArtsLink.
For any questions, please send us an email at: silkmuseum.tbilisi@gmail.com
