2011-05-02
New Art Union announces the results of Site specific art contest held in 02.04 2011 - 02.05 2011. The international jury has granted two projects: THE ARROW OF TIME and SOVIET STRUCTURES. Implementation of these projects will held in the cities of Rustavi and Tbilisi by the end of May!

THE ARROW OF TIME

by Magda Guruli, Archil Turmanidze, Ilia Zautashvili, Guram Tsibakhashvili, Mamuka Japharidze, Luka Zet, Etusa Gabashvili, in partnership with The Center for Global Coordination of Culture and Art – CGCCA www.artisterium.org 

The project The Arrow of time is a multitask art event held in the beautiful old Soviet building and its surroundings in the center of the Old Rustavi, on 30 Rustaveli Street. The name of the building is Chemists Palace. The residential area around “Khimiki” also known as Khimiki District along with the Chemists Palace is comprised of shabby, but beautiful apartment houses, nearly broken streets, dysfunctional railway station, a dirty park behind the Palace, closed sport water complex, ball-shaped huge water container and the bunch of typical blocks of Soviet era.

Chemists Palace is a typical Soviet architecture of socialistic classicism style built in the 1950s of the last century. It was a cultural center for the Rustavi Chemical Industrial Complex’s professionals, laborers, and wide public. The Palace comprised a cinema hall and folk dance and music study group rooms for children. The Palace used to host various concerts and Soviet films of the time.

Nowadays “Khimiki” is closed. Only thanks to teenagers of the Khimiki District the surroundings of the building maintain its live edge as it is the most popular point for the districts’ teenagers to hang out. They come to the park behind the Palace to play, to walk, to rehearse break-dance, to meet each other and to climb the shabby, graffiti-covered back side of the building.

The architectural heritage of the Soviet Union undergoes a complex process of re-defining its function and a place in the transitional period of the post-totalitarian present. The buildings built for a certain goals based on the peculiarities of the Soviet ideology sometimes are considered as not responsive to the current challenges and often appear only as silent artifacts of “disturbed” landscapes. However they are the best structures possessing particularly significant historical and cultural meanings in the process of understanding the past and the present for moving forward.

“The Arrow of Time” is indoor and outdoor interdisciplinary event that brings together the artists and Rustavi citizens to realize the project that consists of research meetings, cleaning and preparation, a photo-video exhibition in the Palace, a workshop and a concert/discothèque in the Chemists Palace’s backyard park.

One of the important features of the project is to involve the young generation of the Khimiki District in the preparatory period and the event. The members of initiative group have met with the park teenagers during their site visit. The local teenagers are ready to distribute the posters, help in cleaning the park and to take part in the workshop envisaged by the program.

The initiative group has also informed the Gubernator’s office of the Low Kartli Region and the Rustavi City Hall about the possible event. The initiative group has also met with the supervisor of Chemical Palace Mr. Robinzon Khaladze who has confirmed his readiness to support the project in the Palace and its backyard park.


SOVIET STRUCTURES - SOCIETY RECONNECTION LAB

by Koka Vashakidze and Vasil Macharadze, in cooperation with Magda Guruli

The project means to observe and reintegrate the buildings, built in soviet times, with the public spaces, using the self-parody. It can be said that these buildings are irrelevant with the changeable environment after the period of soviet hysteria has passed and the main function of them is lost. The structures are irrelevant with the environment and the language of them looks like the monologue (delirium) standing aside from the surrounding postulates. Is it possible to create the dialogue by giving the direction to the stream of chaotic monologue? Is it possible to give back the public interest to the buildings by the way of interpreting the shapes and the functional findings?

The project consists of two actions: KIOSK and installation in MAXIMAL GORKI Park.


We thank you for all the applications received and wish good luck to the winners!


(description of the selected projects: on the basis of the application)




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