Art as the Key to freedom - With Transkaukazja 2015 in Germany we deliberately want to address the issue of the relation of arts and freedom and deal with it in and artistic way while discussing it together with the audience.
Under the guidance of experienced curators mainly young Caucasian artists from the three republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were selected. The activities will partly take place in Caucasus, but mainly in Saxony. In a combination of diverse art forms (audio-visual art, installation, photography, music, etc.) exchange and interaction between Caucasian and local artists and the audience from different social milieus will be encouraged in a creative way and transferred into artistic forms.
A) Exchange trip through Saxony (10.-23.09.2015)
This year we bring Caucasian artists to Germany once again! From 10th to 23rd Sept 2015 six selected young artists from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia together with a project team will go to different places in Saxony, where along with local artists they explore the social and cultural scope, present their own projects, and develop them further with the help of the new impressions. For all people interested it offers a rare chance of a deep insight into today’s reality of arts and society in the Caucasian countries. More information here!
B) Training – workshops, excursions, presentation (06.-13.10.2015)
The next step takes us directly to the Caucasus, to Armenia. Under the name “linking bridges – building networks” Kultur Aktiv and the partners of the Youth Initiative Center (Gyumri/AM) will coordinate an international youth trip with 28 participants from 6th to 13th Oct 2015. There youths connected with the European Volunteer Service from Armenia, Austria, Greece, Modolva, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Germany will be brought together. Druing the trip the particiapnats will meet with local youth groups in the cities of Gyumri, Vanadzor, Yerevan, and Goris. There topics like freedom of speech, citizens’ involvement, and international exchange will be discussed and new strategies and project ideas will be developed. More information here!
C) Presentation and Documentation
Parallel to the exchange trip there will be an exhibition at the NEUE OSTEN gallery in Dresden displaying photographs from Caucasus. Ani Gevorgyan and Levon Fliyan (both from Armenia) will present documentary photographs showing acts of freedom of speech in the public space, for example during street rallies. At the vernissage on 11.09.2015 some of the photographers together with the curator Matthias Schumann, who is also a photographer and expert for Eastern Europe, will invite the audience to join the discussion.
Afterwards a Transcaucasian movie night turns our focus on the medium of film. We will present different movies at the Programmkino Ost in Dresden, dealing with art and freedom of speech. The curator and cineaste Uwe Penckert will moderate the presentation concerning the contents and discuss it with the audience.
Subsequently, Transkaukazja will bring a musical performance to the culture ship Cargo Gallery, which will land in Dresden for the second time from 13th to 17th November. The Caucasian music group will perform on the ship and set a special international accent. The values of freedom of speech and artistic freedom onstage will be issued on the ship by several display boards and inform the guests about the situation in the Caucasian countries and prompt the audience to call to mind how this issue affects everyone of us.
The results of the entire project will be published multilingual on a several websites as well as on social media (facebook, Youtube and vkontakte/www.vk.com). Furthermore, a documentation booklet will be compiled and distributed in Saxony and Caucasus among the audience and interested persons.
Transkaukazja – project context
The project is part of a European art and culture project that due to its Polish origin (since 2004) has been dubbed “Transkaukazja” and had been realised as festival for Caucasian contemporary art until 2009. Since 2011 the whole project has extended from Poland to Austria, Czech Republic and Germany (main focus on Saxony) and further European countries and also includes a wide range of activities from Caucasus. The activities in Europe take place every two years.
Kultur Aktiv e.V. as German partner has been an established part of the international team since 2009/10 and managed to organize Transkaukazja in 2011 and 2013 including exhibitions, artist residencies, festival contributions etc. To ensure a variable project artistic approach and the event’s framework change every year, so that a new project can be realised in 2015 based on the experiences from 2011 and 2013.
The following international partners will be part of Transkaukazja 2015:
Arts Territory (London, UK)
Austrian – Caucasian Society (Vienna, AT)
Aye Aye v.o. (Nancy, FR)
Congress of Cultural Activists (Kiev, UA)
Fundacja Inna Przestrzeń/The Other Space Foundation (Warschau, PL)
S-Hacek (Prag, CZ)
Tutu Art Center (Baku, AZ)
Youth Initiative Center (Gyumri, AM)
The project is supported by the Cultural Foundation of Saxony and the programme Wir für Sachsen, and the European Cultural Foundation.
