The first Disruption Network Lab Community Meetup of 2024, Pause / Play: Culture under Pressure presents activities that were part of the project Pause / Play: Culture under Pressure, as well as address current socio- political issues in the South Caucasus. Overall the evening programme will focus on presenting cultural and artistic tactics and strategies of self-organisation in the region of South Caucasus and challenges of integration in Georgia, Armenia and Germany.

The programme will consist of a zine launch and a public talk, that will present the issues that arose from the project “Pause / Play: Culture under Pressure”. The project captures the intricate dynamics of the contemporary art and culture scene in the (post)pandemic era, interwoven with political repressions, wars and transitions in Eastern Europe and South Caucasus. The project started in 2022 in Tbilisi, Georgia and continued in Yerevan, Armenia in 2023. The second public talk of the evening will bring together art and queer organizations from the South Caucasus region. The speakers will be sharing their own experiences in community-building during turbulent times, and speaking out about the importance of regional solidarity.

Programme
18:30 – 18:40 Welcome and Introduction by Tatiana Bazzichelli and Elena Veljanovska (Disruption Network Lab)
18:40 – 19:00 Presentation of the zine “Pause/Play – art communities in migration” and Introduction to the digital exhibition “Translating Transition“ by Giorgi Rodionov and Alexandra Goloborodko.

The zine encompasses a collection of texts and artistic projects dedicated to the self organized art groups and to the migration of artists and art-initiatives, caused by the Russian invasion in Ukraine and political repressions in Belarus. The publication explores various strategies for navigating new spaces and engaging with local communities, reflecting on individual experiences. Simultaneously, it addresses the shifting trends of the digital arts and the move of artistic practices into digital spaces. The catalyst for the publication was the project Pause / Play: Сulture under Pressure, which took place online and offline in Tbilisi and Yerevan from 2022 to 2023.
The exhibition is based on the process of translation, that entails finding the correct way to convey meaning from one language to another. The title, both metaphorically, and in practice, alludes to the perpetual need to discover new methods of translation to adapt to the evolving circumstances of life in exile, particularly for those who recently had to leave their homes due to political and geopolitical reasons. People who were forced to leave their home countries, to cut a lot of both professional and personal ties, are facing the challenges of the need to “translate”, not only the language and new cultural semiotic system into everyday life as immigrants, but also to make everyday efforts to get to know and comprehend the otherness, to integrate into the new cultural context and social structures and re-evaluate their own identity in these new circumstances. The projects presented at the exhibition primarily reflect or are influenced by the struggles and the process of discovering new grounds and means to forge fresh ties and get new meanings.

19:00 – 20:00 TALK: Art communities in migration
With: Alexandra Goloborodko (Curator), Marlene Bart (Artist), Anna Titovets Intektra (Artist and curator), Diana Meyerhold (Artist). Moderated by Giorgi Rodionov (Curator).

Art has always been on the frontline of ideology struggles and therefore often a target of authoritarian regimes. Recent political crises, wars and instabilities pushed many artists and art initiatives outside of their home countries. The panel discussion explores artistic and curatorial practices which developed without institutional support in or out of the artist’s own countries. The speakers will reflect on the struggles that the migrating artists are facing through the example of the project “Pause/Play: Culture under Pressure”. The project aimed to provide and document? tools for working outside of institutionally structured systems and in virtual spaces. The talk also emphasizes the importance of developing artistic and activist strategies in digital media.

20:15 -21:45 TALK: Mutating Caucasus
With: Salina Abaza (Sukhum/i), Leo/Leona (Pink Armenia, Yerevan), Murad Yuzbashov (Salaam cinema). Moderated by Giorgi Rodionov (untitled tbilisi)

The South Caucasus is a meeting point of larger socio-political ideologies, and the current time of global crises is impacting the region rapidly as well. Migrations, conflicts, economic struggles and a feeling of instability usually affect vulnerable groups the most. The public talk brings together art and queer organizations from the South Caucasus region. The speakers will be sharing their own experiences in community-building during turbulent times like this decade, and speaking out about the importance of regional solidarity. As of 2024, these four organizations initiated an art platform called InVisible, built on the experience of the queer and feminist art festival, previously taking place in Baku and Tbilisi. In its current form, InVisible is envisioned as an annual collaborative platform for queer and feminist art in the Caucasus region. It provides broad access to underrepresented stories, creating a safe space for encounters and finding alternatives to pervasive nationalist narratives, and developing connections and collaborations between the queer community from the region and its members who are in exile in other countries.
In 2024, InVisible focuses on the manifold process of mutation that the Caucasus region is going through, investigating how it affects queer and feminist rights and how to foster a transnational community practice that can provide a tactical response to the current difficult context.