‘Undergo the parallels’ is a series of public art events that will be taking place in underground passageways in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, from 24 May until 2 June. The project is part of an international cooperation project entitled ‘SPACES: Sustainable Public Areas for Culture in Eastern Countries’ and is being run as part of the EU-funded Eastern Partnership Culture Programme. Networking and capacity building workshops for the art and culture scene in Georgia and beyond will also be taking place.

 

According to a press release published by the Eastern Partnership Culture Programme, the exhibition project is being held in about ten pedestrian underpasses around Tbilisi. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these underground passages have experienced different stages of existence: first they were completely abandoned and became dangerous places of muggings and robbery. The result was that people used them less and less, choosing to cross busy roads, which led to a significant death toll.

Later, these undergrounds became places where alternative, unofficial selling points arose. The more efficient sellers developed kiosks, shops, gambling places etc. Some of these underground passageways developed their own life, parallel to ‘normal’ city life in the open air. These passages somehow turned into spaces for meeting and communicating, with young people gathering in gambling houses and musicians and students meeting to play and listen to the music. Today these underground areas are still under development. In some of them new ‘organized’ commercial infrastructure has been built while some passages have lost their practical function and became places for garbage or turned into public toilets.

 

The Eastern Partnership Culture Programme cites two direct goals: practical and artistic. In terms of practical goals, the aim is to encourage people in Tbilisi to use the underground passageways more frequently. On the artistic level, site-specific works (light installations, sound installations, photography, street art etc.) produced especially for the passageways will address socio-political and concrete practical issues mentioned above. Tbilisi and Georgian people are not used to art in public space and in participatory art.

 

“With the project ‘Undergo the parallels’, we aim to confront the general public with unconventional ways of perceptions of art and engagement with it. Some artworks as street art, light installations, produced during the project, could also remain on-site and act as a long-term attraction in both practical and aesthetical ways for the passageways,” says the Eastern Partnership Culture Programme press release.

 

The €12 million Eastern Partnership Culture Programme aims at assisting the Partner Countries in their cultural policy reform at government level, as well as capacity building and improving professionalism of cultural operators in the region. It seeks to strengthen regional cultural links and dialogue within the Eastern Partnership region, and between the EU and ENP Eastern countries' cultural networks and actors. (EU Neighbourhood Info)

 

 

 

 

 

Undergo the Parallels – Picasa album

 

Undergo the Parallels – blog

 

Eastern Partnership Culture Programme – website

 

Eastern Partnership Culture Programme – fiche and news

  

ENPI Info Centre information pack - The Eastern Partnership: a path to stability and prosperity