ARTIST TALK: CIS Arts Circuit LECTURE BY Nini Palavandishvili
01 May 15
YARAT Contemporary Art Space is delighted to invite you to the lecture 'CIS Arts Circuit' by Nini Palavandishvili, curator and art specialist (GeoAir) in YARAT Centre on 1st May 2015 at 19.00.
Further initiating cross-border dialogue with a wide range of cultural voices, YARAT is launching a series of monthly talks, screenings and discussions with artists from the CIS region (Commonwealth of Independent States) of countries formed after the collapse of the USSR. This programme is entitled CIS Arts Circuit (CISAC). The CISAC will feature leading artists and practitioners from the region who will share their work and projects with a view to establishing mutual cooperation within the regional arts community.
Our first speaker for this programme will be Nini Palavandishvili, curator and art specialist (GeoAir).
The presentation will focus on the activities of GeoAIR residency programme, operating from 2010 onwards. Over the years GeoAIR has strengthened its position on the international art map as an organisation with a focus on socially engaged participatory projects, with strong bonds within the art scene, extensive relations with other organisations and individuals, not only locally, but also internationally.
Nini will give selected examples of collaborations using the residency as a research platform for all involved parties, hosts and residents alike, scholars and all other interested people who want to learn about the current situation and developments in the region. Physical and informational exchanges are an effective tool for mediation and reaction to local and regional situations, when cultural tourism turns into active engagement. Art might not always propose something absolutely new, but in many ways it can contribute to the construction of new subjectivities.
Nini Palavandishvili was born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia. After studying Art History in Tbilisi, she graduated from the UdK Berlin in the Faculty of Public and Industrial Communication. After returning to Georgia she worked as a graphic designer for diverse advertising companies, cultural institutions, media and book publishers. Designing catalogues for exhibitions and individual artists led her to visual art and the artist community. In 2006, Nini joined artist initiative GeoAIR and since then has been actively engaged in curating and organising international exchange projects in Georgia and beyond. Nini Palavandishvili is also a coordinator of an art residency programme launched by GeoAIR in January 2010 in Tbilisi, Georgia. Through her projects Nini researches social and political contexts and its interpretation in the context of cultural production and contemporary art. She is interested in artistic practice that gives innovative forms and finds a language with which it is possible to speak about political and social matters. Her recent projects include: Cooking Imaginations: Tbilisi Migrant Stories, an interdisciplinary project, Tbilisi, Georgia (2014), International Food Night, performance project in the framework of the international exhibition Deprivation by the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Poland (2014), Station Babina and Cobra Park interventions in the framework of Vacant Central Eastern Europe project in collaboration with KEK (HU) and 4AM (CZ), Tbilisi, Georgia (2014), Now Wakes the Sea, Batumi, Georgia (2013), Travelling Foodways. Betlemi Quarter Stories, Tbilisi, Georgia (2013), Undergo. The Parallels, Tbilisi, Georgia (2012), Very/Con/Temporary, in collaboration with Goethe Institute, Georgia, (2012), East Mission, Berlin, Germany (2012), Dressing Room/Garment Work, Elizabeth White & Anne Elizabeth Moore in the framework of Artisterium, 4th Tbilisi International Contemporary Art Exhibition and Art Events, State Silk Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia (2011), Are We Again Travelers or Still Tourists? Artistic city trips in the framework of the IETM Autumn Plenary Meeting, Krakow, Poland (2011), Time Future in Time
Past, multidisciplinary audio-visual art project, Batumi, Georgia (2011), IMAGO, Group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (GfZK), Leipzig, Germany (2011), The Last Match, in the framework of Artisterium, 3rd Tbilisi International Contemporary Art Exhibition and Art Events (2010), Frozen Moments: Architecture Speaks Back. A project by Joanna Warsza. The Former Ministry of Highways of the Soviet Republic of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia (2010).
Published writings: 'Nothing to Declare', Contribution in the exhibition catalogue The Journey to the East, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland, 2011; Transrelation, (Ed. N. Tchogoshvili) Goethe Institute Georgia, 2010 Atlantis. Hidden Histories, New Identities: European Art Twenty Years After the Iron Curtain, Heinric Böll Stiftung Brandenburg and Argobooks, Berlin, 2010.
Nini Palavandishvili lives and works in Tbilisi.
YARAT Contemporary Art Centre, Multifunctional Room (2nd floor)
Venue: Sabail district, Bayil (near the National Flag square), Baku, Azerbaijan, AZ1000.
Date: May 1, 2015
Time: 19:00
Admission: Free
