Artists at Risk (AR) at Pause/Play: Culture Under Pressure in Tbilisi, Georgia
The keynote speakers for the event Hybrid Talk. Digital Tools for Self-organisation: Activists to Artists on Friday, 11 November 2022, were Anna Shvets, arts manager and producer; Sara Culmann, visual artist, designer and researcher; Bahdan Khmialnitski, cultural activist; artist and designer Yasha Maksymenko (OSSS group); and Artists at Risk’s (AR) very own Co-Founders and Co-Directors Ivor Stodolsky and Marita Muukkonen. Moderated by Giorgi Rodionov, Matchmaking Curator with multiple AR-Solidarity Teams and Director of AR-Tbilisi.
On 12 November, Artists at Risk’s (AR) Co-Founding Directors Marita Muukkonen and Ivor Stodolsky were in conversation with Nika Nikulshina, Pussy Riot activist and resident at AR-Untitled Gallery Residency in Tbilisi, Georgia. Moderated by Giorgi Rodionov, Matchmaking Curator with multiple AR-Solidarity Teams and Director of AR-Tbilisi.
Pause/Play: Culture was aimed at integrating art and digital professionals who have currently relocated to Germany, Poland and Georgia due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and political repressions in Belarus.
The project took place in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, due to the increase of a significant wave of immigration, from repressive political regimes. The diametric identity of Tbilisi, juxtaposed between Soviet history and ongoing Europeanisation, and hosting diverse art and cultural initiatives, provided a fitting environment for international exchange in a time of conflict and political pressure.
For more information, visit: https://cultureunderpressure.art/.
