https://vijaskangale.com/other-set
2024-02-05T11:58:02+00:00
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https://vijaskangale.com/menu-page
2024-02-06T16:50:41+00:00
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2024-02-06T13:42:13+00:00
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https://vijaskangale.com/project-highlights
2026-02-23T08:16:35+00:00
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.46;"> The Feeling in My Tongue</span></b>
- an interdisciplinary exhibition featuring six practice-based doctoral candidates at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts. The exhibition showcased their ongoing research projects through various media such as textile, sound,sculpture, installation, performance, and moving images and offers to explore our own individual perception of their works. How does our engagement with sensorial, auditory or tactile based on our lived experiences or impairment evoke sensations and emotional responses in our bodies? We invited people to investigate how the subjective process of perception and engagement is influenced by one's accumulated life experiences and how such interactions manifest in physical responses within the observer's corporeal and experiential dimensions. </span>
https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/U1614033958674258786527425014026/28.jpg
<b><span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">ZOO HORSE - Collecting a digital archive</span><br />
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</b> <span style="--font-scale: 1.13;">Showing my husband, then-boyfriend, a collection of my childhood photographs, I came across one of a four-year-old me on a papier-mâché horse in Tbilisi Zoo.<br />
<br /><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">I was born in Tbilisi in the 1980s, back when the country was still a part of the Soviet Union. Visiting the zoo was a special event for me: it meant that I would get a Plombir ice cream, a cup of sparkling gazirovka (a non-alcoholic sparkling beverage), and a ride on an amusement ride adjacent to the premises. But the highlight of the day would always be getting the chance to sit on the papier-mâché horse that looked like it had galloped from a merry-go-round ride. I remember being helped onto the horse, filled with anticipation and excitement at having my photo taken, but also overcome with shyness in front of the photographer</span><br />
<br /><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">Revisiting the childhood memory made me curious to learn more about this papier-mâché horse and the person behind the camera. I embarked on my search for the photographer only to find the Tbilisi Zoo holds no archive. After much digging around, and enquiring on social media, I found out that Victor Sukiasov (1930-2017) was the unsung photographer in question.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.new-east-archive.org/features/show/12035/tblisi-zoo-unofficial-photographer-childhood-memories-tribute">Read more about this project</a><br />
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<b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/jun/26/the-mystery-of-the-georgian-papier-mache-horse-in-pictures?fbclid=IwAR0OAa1QpOj2pRgTCEfW8dcvFTKUVkExV0OIYIYr3DKV49hdE9c778e7fCM">Press about this project</a></b></span>
https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/T1614035481914150673093649705226/Screenshot-2024-02-04-at-16.43.41.png
<span style="--font-scale: 1.11;">Invited by <b><a href="https://kunsthalletbilisi.com/" target="_blank">Kunsthalle Tbilisi</a> </b>to conduct an eight-week workshop titled "New Strategies in Critical thinking and writing about Contemporary Art"<br />
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<b>Dates:</b> 20th January 2021 - 20th March 2021</span>
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<b><span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">TATE MODERN, 2018</span><br />
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</b><br /><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">Reimagine the role of the arts in an age of rapid technological change and explore how, through the arts, we can move beyond everyday consumption and technology as a spectacle. Together let’s challenge the mainstream, say the unsaid and address inclusion, integration and the production of technology in our lives, society, work, education – and in the arts.<br /><br />The Digital Maker Collective and invited guest contributors/makers from across the globe will transform Tate Exchange into a large public tech innovation studio, a space to get hands-on with technology exploration and rapid prototyping, and discover new forms of collaborative digital making experimentation.<br />
<br />For more Information and details of the week-long programme please visit: <a href="http://digitalmakercollective.org/">http://digitalmakercollective.org</a> and the #artsworkofthefuture hashtag.<br />
<br />This event is programmed by <a href="http://digitalmakercollective.org/">Digital Maker Collective</a>, a Tate Exchange Associate.</span><br /><br />
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<b><a href="https://riakeburia.com/upcomingprojects/unfoldingfromideasintopractice" style="--font-scale: 1.5;"></a></b><b><span style="--font-scale: 1.5;"><a href="https://riakeburia.com/upcomingprojects/unfoldingfromideasintopractice">UNFOLDING:</a> FROM IDEAS INTO PRACTICE,</span> <br />
Ria Keburia Foundation</b><b></b><br />
<br /><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">"Unfolding: from Ideas into Practice" is a series of workshops and talks that engage emerging artists in conversations about the critical relationship to creative practices.</span><br /><br />
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<b><span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">TATE MODERN, 2018</span><br />
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</b><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">On Friday 26 January 2018 the Digital Maker Collective were invited to activate the 4th Floor Boiler House, Tate Modern as part of <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/late/uniqlo-tate-lates" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Uniqlo Tate Late</a> event, which this month was programmed in collaboration with the<a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/tate-exchange" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> Tate Exchange</a> Associates. <br />AI group intervention had two interactive installations: The first was a recorded holographic installation that gave a short description of all the various activities being shown by the Digital Makers Collective at the Tate <br />Late event. The second intervention was a mock robot that directly interacts with the audience initiating a dialogue on technological production and its impact on our lives.</span><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"><span style="--font-scale: 1.55;">BOOKMARK EXHIBITION</span><br />
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The Central Saint Martins library showcased research-in-progress of 17 doctoral researchers working across disciplines at CSM. To BOOKMARK is draw attention to a moment in our PhD journeys, a page or paragraph highlighted in bright marker or marginalia that we may return to again and again. This is the third instalment of an annual showcase of doctoral research at CSM. The aim was to provoke, inform and generate conversations within and beyond the postgraduate community. The work was shown across vitrines and video monitors, and a series of printed bookmark interventions hidden in books on the shelves of Central Saint Martins Library.<br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"><b><br />
<span style="--font-scale: 1.46;"> The Feeling in My Tongue</span></b>
- an interdisciplinary exhibition featuring six practice-based doctoral candidates at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts. The exhibition showcased their ongoing research projects through various media such as textile, sound,sculpture, installation, performance, and moving images and offers to explore our own individual perception of their works. How does our engagement with sensorial, auditory or tactile based on our lived experiences or impairment evoke sensations and emotional responses in our bodies? We invited people to investigate how the subjective process of perception and engagement is influenced by one's accumulated life experiences and how such interactions manifest in physical responses within the observer's corporeal and experiential dimensions. </span>
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"><span style="--font-scale: 1.5;"><b>EMBODYING TRANSITION: PERFORMING 1990’S TODAY</b></span><br /><br />The collapse of the Soviet Union profoundly impacted everyday life in the national republics, and underground performance art provided a space for imagining alternative socio-political movements amid the transition. This project explored lesser-known experimental practices from the 1980s through the 1990s in Georgia, including land art, body art, and video art. In particular, the project focused on how artists used their artistic practices to navigate through the crisis periods, including the collapse of the USSR, the Coup d'état in December (1991) and the Georgian Civil War (1991-1993). Despite facing severe constraints like prolonged power outages and scarcity of food, water, electricity, and gas, these artists maintained an active presence. <br /><br />As at once a study of experimental art amidst the political turmoil and transition of the 1980s and 1990s, the project also attends to the continued relevance of these forms of art in shaping our political present and intervening in authoritarian violence. <br />
<br />Many performances from the 1990s in Georgia remain undocumented, with only a limited number of photographs and oral histories attesting to their existence. This project aimed to include re-enactments of performances that held symbolic significance during that period, as well as those that were not recorded, such as those by the Vardzia art group. Additionally, the program featured screenings of archival footage of performances from the 1990s.<br />
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</span>WATCH A SHORT FILM ABOUT THIS PROGRAMME <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF0s_B76iss" target="_blank">ONLINE </a><br />
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<b>UPCOMING</b><br /><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">Paul Kondas, Thea Gvetadze curated by Vija Skangale<br /><a href="https://temnikova.ee/?c=exhibition&l=en&t=We-are-currently-installing-Paul-Kondas--Thea-Gvetadze-Unfolding-Nuptials&id=401#summary" target="_blank">‘Unfolding Nuptials</a>’<br />February 5, 2026 — April 11,2026<br />Opening February 4 at 6 PM<br /><br />You’re cordially invited to the duo show opening of Tbilisi-based artist Thea Gvetadze and Estonian artist Paul Kondas in an exhibition titled “Unfolding Nuptials”<br /><br />The exhibition features two artists who lived in different geographies, times, and environments and never met. However, the ability to see the world through a lens of truth and unmasked perception is what distinguishes and brings together Paul and Thea. <br />While Thea’s artistic practice reveals honest realities and hidden layers that often escape the gaze of the average observer, Paul’s paintings disclose the complexities of life—signs of resistance, whispers of dissent, and the quiet passions that drive human connection. Often unnoticed, they also expose the truth about political systems and relationships. <br /><br />Exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.</span>
https://vijaskangale.com/writing
2026-02-23T08:16:01+00:00
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<a href="https://post.moma.org/an-underground-bridge-to-georgian-collectiveness-finding-a-tribe-through-collective-trauma/#:~:text=An%20Underground%20Bridge%20to%20Georgian%20Collectiveness%3A%20Finding%20a%20Tribe%20through%20Collective%20Trauma,-Vija%20Skangale&text=What%20is%20common%20and%20what,Vija%20Skangale%20in%20this%20text." style="--font-scale: 1.51;" target="_blank">An Underground Bridge to Georgian Collectiveness: Finding a Tribe through Collective Trauma</a>, <span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">MoMA C-MAP</span>
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.12; line-height: 1.3;">What is common and what differs between Georgian artist collectives of the late 1980s and those of today are among the questions explored by curator and researcher Vija Skangale in this text. The collectives Archivarius, 10th Floor, and Marjanishvili Theatre collective, or “Marjanishvilebi,” formed during a time of political transformation to directly address economic scarcity and social instability via collectivity, experimentation, and the search for new forms of expression. Project Fungus, which emerged in 2020 from a burgeoning underground culture scene, addresses discrimination against LGBTQUI+ people in Georgia as well as the homophobia and intolerance endemic to Georgian society using a collective platform to amplify a multitude of creative voices.</span><br />
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<span class="button-5-10"><a href="https://post.moma.org/an-underground-bridge-to-georgian-collectiveness-finding-a-tribe-through-collective-trauma/#:~:text=An%20Underground%20Bridge%20to%20Georgian%20Collectiveness%3A%20Finding%20a%20Tribe%20through%20Collective%20Trauma,-Vija%20Skangale&text=What%20is%20common%20and%20what,Vija%20Skangale%20in%20this%20text." target="_blank">READ MORE</a> </span><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"><a href="https://www.biennialfoundation.org/2016/04/biennialgram-from-the-marrakech-biennale-6/" style="--font-scale: 1.51;" target="_blank">Biennialgram From The Marrakech Biennale 6</a><br />
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<span style="line-height: 1.3;">Bonjour! Morning air on the way from our hotel to the “Not New Now” or the sixth Marrakech Biennale was filled with a mixture of hot dust, a motor rollers’ loud noise and a delicate smell of spices.<br />
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When we arrived at a relatively new and central part of Marrakech called Gueliz, we found a Soviet architecture style building where Marrakech Biennale office resides. Here, on 62 Yugoslavia str., our exploration of Marrakech Biennale 6 began. Wandering around, we found several rooms dedicated to video art, mixed media art and installations on the roof terrace. The unexpected morning emptiness in the building with no invigilators or visitors was charming, creating a setting for an intimate viewing of the works by Aida Muluneh, Emanuel Tegene, Ephrem Solomon, Tamrat Gezahengne, among others.</span><br />
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<a class="button-5-11" href="https://www.biennialfoundation.org/2016/04/biennialgram-from-the-marrakech-biennale-6/" target="_blank">READ MORE</a></span>
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<b><a href="https://www.new-east-archive.org/features/show/12035/tblisi-zoo-unofficial-photographer-childhood-memories-tribute" style="--font-scale: 1.5;" target="_blank">Watch the birdie: how a papier-mâché horse in Tbilisi Zoo grew into a popular photo studio</a><br />
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</b> <span style="--font-scale: 1.13;"><br /><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">I</span><span style="line-height: 1.3;"><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"> was born in Tbilisi in the 1980s, back when the country was still a part of the Soviet Union. Visiting the zoo was a special event for me: it meant that I would get a Plombir ice cream, a cup of sparkling gazirovka (a non-alcoholic sparkling beverage), and a ride on an amusement ride adjacent to the premises. But the highlight of the day would always be getting the chance to sit on the papier-mâché horse that looked like it had galloped from a merry-go-round ride. I remember being helped onto the horse, filled with anticipation and excitement at having my photo taken, but also overcome with shyness in front of the photographer</span><br />
<br /><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">Revisiting the childhood memory made me curious to learn more about this papier-mâché horse and the person behind the camera. I embarked on my search for the photographer only to find the Tbilisi Zoo holds no archive. After much digging around, and enquiring on social media, I found out that Victor Sukiasov (1930-2017) was the unsung photographer in question.</span></span><br />
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<a class="button-5-17" href="https://www.new-east-archive.org/features/show/12035/tblisi-zoo-unofficial-photographer-childhood-memories-tribute" target="_blank">READ MORE</a><br />
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<b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/jun/26/the-mystery-of-the-georgian-papier-mache-horse-in-pictures?fbclid=IwAR0OAa1QpOj2pRgTCEfW8dcvFTKUVkExV0OIYIYr3DKV49hdE9c778e7fCM">Press about this project</a></b></span>
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.5;"><a href="https://tpa.fund/en/home/115--.html" target="_blank">Public Art Fund Project <i>Flowers </i><i>A</i><i>re for All - Installation by Nato Bagrationi</i></a><br /><br />
<span style="--font-scale: 1.12; line-height: 1.3;">How does the close proximity between the urban periphery and nature influence one another? What happens when the artist attempts to dissolve the boundaries between dichotomic notions of “urban” and “nature” blur and create a new utopian reality? These complex questions can be explored in the project Flowers Are for All</span><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"><br />
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<a class="button-5-12" href="https://tpa.fund/en/home/115--.html" target="_blank">READ MORE</a></span></span>
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<a href="https://smak.be/en/publications/sentimental-traveller-karlo-kacharava" style="--font-scale: 1.5;" target="_blank">Karlo Kacharava: The Salient Truth of
the ‘Supernova,</a> <span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">S.M.A.K. </span><span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">Museum </span><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"><span style="line-height: 1.3;">Karlo Kacharava (1964–1994) played a remarkable role in shaping the multidisciplinary artistic landscape of his native Georgia. As an artist, art critic, art historian, poet and writer, the body of work he produced in his short life has been
described as ‘oceanic’. It explores themes of love and sex, but also and above
all issues relating to the socio-political climate that prevailed in Georgia at the
time. His paintings, diaries and texts are intricately interconnected and form a
cohesive tapestry that cannot be examined separately. Kacharava had a keen eye
for artistic synthesis and merged the influences of German Romanticism and
Expressionism to create a unique visual language that became his signature</span></span><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"><br />
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</span><a class="button-5-15" href="https://smak.be/en/publications/sentimental-traveller-karlo-kacharava" target="_blank">READ MORE</a><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.5;"><a href="https://www.afterall.org/articles/reclaiming-the-quintessential-georgian-artist-niko-pirosmanis-decentralised-language-of-the-future/" target="_blank">Reclaiming the Quintessential Georgian Artist: Niko Pirosmani’s Decentralised Language of the Future</a><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"><span style="line-height: 1;">This text originated as a review of the exhibition ‘<span style="line-height: 1.3;">Pirosmani’ at the Fondation Beyeler,which followed the exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, whose curation emphasised efforts to decentralise the imperialist, romanticised and exoticised narrative surrounding the artist Niko or Nikala Pirosmanashvili, often simply referred to as Pirosmani (1862–1918). The review looked at Pirosmani as the most famous and recognised artist in Georgia and how a deconstructive reading of his paintings and exhibtion can contribute to formerly lost agency or national identity. However, prior to publishing the final version of the text, shifts in the political landscape in November 2024 in Georgia brought in unprecedented precarity, adding a granular critical contextual dimension to the fabric of this discussion.</span></span><br />
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<a class="button-5-19" href="https://www.afterall.org/articles/reclaiming-the-quintessential-georgian-artist-niko-pirosmanis-decentralised-language-of-the-future/" target="_blank">READ MORE</a></span></span>
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.5;"><a href="https://post.moma.org/erased-histories-karlo-kacharavas-lights-and-shadows/?sc_src=email_9352294&sc_lid=851461819&sc_uid=k4Ge5sRWV5&sc_llid=2592&sc_eh=8fa67a7e39f9d5cf1&utm_source=Emarsys&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Copy+of+11%2F5+New+Publication+on+post+&&mi_u=270007405&mi_ecmp=9352294" target="_blank">Erased Histories: Karlo Kacharava’s Lights and Shadows, MoMA C-MAP</a><br />
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<b></b></span><span style="--font-scale: 1.12; line-height: 1.3;">Karlo Kacharava (1964–1994), a prominent Georgian artist, writer, art critic, and poet, has been referred to as “the voice of his generation” and a “supernova.” In my contribution to the book <i>Karlo Kacharava: Sentimental Travelle</i>r, published in 2023 on the occasion of Kacharava’s solo exhibition in Ghent at S.M.A.K., I discuss the intertwining of his “oceanic” body of work, both visual and written, with his short but extraordinary life. However, in the present essay, I have chosen to focus on his <i>Erased Portraits of Politicians</i> (c. 1988), which are lesser known yet nonetheless important and provocative. In the nine graphic works that make up this seminal series, Kacharava repurposed existing photographs of Soviet politicians printed on high-quality photographic paper that, in their rebirth, not only acquire new meaning but also function allegorically in decolonial discourse.</span><br />
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<a class="button-5-18" href="https://post.moma.org/erased-histories-karlo-kacharavas-lights-and-shadows/?sc_src=email_9352294&sc_lid=851461819&sc_uid=k4Ge5sRWV5&sc_llid=2592&sc_eh=8fa67a7e39f9d5cf1&utm_source=Emarsys&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Copy+of+11%2F5+New+Publication+on+post+&&mi_u=270007405&mi_ecmp=9352294" target="_blank">READ MORE</a></i><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.5;"><b>Reviving traditions and rethinking connections: the metamorphosis </b><b>of</b><b> spiritual and archaic bodies.<br />
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</b><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"><i><b>‘</b>The moon has transformed into a thought and entered the heart.’</i><br />
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Mariana Chkonia (b. 1969) is a Georgian artist whose artistic practice explores themes of transformation and transition in reflecting on her personal journey and meticulous observations of her surroundings. Her body of work juxtaposes spirituality and materiality, skilfully contrasting the permanence of monumental, sculptural forms in her earlier pieces with the lightness and emotional nuance found in her recent works (2025). She constantly pushes our perceptions of what is possible through transformations in her artworks, and by synthesising the traditional wet and needle felting techniques with other media, she blurs the boundaries between textile, painting, sculpture, and installation</span>.<b><br />
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<span class="button-5-20" style="--font-scale: 1.12; color: rgba(254, 67, 0, 0.93);">COMING SOON</span><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">Performing the 1990s today: bodily histories and reflections (University of Basel, Routledge)</span><u><br />
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</u>I<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">n this text, I will discuss the so-called “dark 1990s” and the artistic underground performances that were happening in that context in Georgia, but also reflect on the performance re-enactments and what it means to repeat some of these performances in new political and social contexts. If history repeats itself, can the performances be re-enacted as well? What does it mean to re-examine the historical performances through today’s contexts and performance re-enactments? <br />
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The performance re-enactments programme titled ‘Embodying transition: Performing 1990s today” co-curated with Leah Feldman and Vija Skangale, May 2025. It was held in the old industrial electro power plant TEC, Tbilisi, Georgia.<br /><br />Georgians often say ‘dark 1990s’ due to a very painful economic collapse and a dense sequence of politically traumatic events in just one decade: 9th April 1989 when a peaceful demonstration for freedom turned into a bloodshed when Soviet tanks attacked peaceful demonstrators, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cout de Etat and the civil war.<br />
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<span class="button-5-21" style="color: rgba(254, 67, 0, 0.93);">COMING SOON</span></span>
https://vijaskangale.com/conferencestalks
2025-10-15T09:04:18+00:00
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<span class="caption"><span style="--font-scale: 1.46;">A panel discussion with Irena Popiashvili, Vija Skangale and Guram Tsibakhashvili<br />
<span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85); --font-scale: 1.12;">S.M.A.K. Museum, March 2024</span></span></span>
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">Postsocialism and Art</span><br /><br />
<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">TrAIN Research Centre, 2021</span><br />
<br />I had the opportunity to present my research paper titled "An Underground Bridge to Free Collective Memory: Exhibitionary Practices in Georgia (1985–1995)" at the Postsocialism Art conference. This event was organised by the Transnational Art, Identity, and Nation (TrAIN) Research Centre, which is known for its rigorous exploration of the intersections between art, identity, and socio-political contexts. The conference was further supported by the British Society of Aesthetics and the Association for Art History, both of which are pivotal in the discourse surrounding contemporary aesthetics and historical art practices.<br />
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In my paper, I explored the role of exhibitionary practices in Georgia during the transformative period of the late 20th century, particularly focusing on how these practices contributed to the construction and re-interpretation of collective memory in the context of post-socialism. By analysing the socio-political landscape of Georgia in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's dissolution. This research not only sheds light on the specific regional dynamics but also contributes to broader discussions about the function of art in post-socialist societies.<br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.46;">Disentangling Eurasia: Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and their Successors</span><br />
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</span><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">Third Tallinn Summer School in Soviet History & Culture, July 2023</span><br />
<br />The Third Tallinn Summer School in Soviet History and Culture convened scholars specialising in Soviet and post-Soviet history for a week-long program aimed at reassessing and critically examining the field in the context of significant upheaval in the region. This interdisciplinary gathering facilitated a dynamic exchange of ideas through keynote presentations, workshops, and an engaging cultural program. Participants actively explored and challenged conventional approaches to Soviet multinationality, seeking to disentangle the diverse trajectories of the various nations and groups within the Soviet realm. The program encouraged a deeper understanding of the complexities and nuances that characterise the historical narratives of these groups, fostering an environment conducive to innovative scholarship in the field.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
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<span class="caption"><span style="--font-scale: 1.46;">A panel discussion with Irena Popiashvili, Vija Skangale and Guram Tsibakhashvili<br />
<span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85); --font-scale: 1.12;">S.M.A.K. Museum, March 2024</span></span></span>
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">RNUAL - Spring Symposium</span><br /><br />
<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">University of Arts, London, 2024</span><br />
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The opportunity to present PhD research and its current progress at the student-led spring symposium was invaluable. This event was designed to foster meaningful conversations and strengthen the sense of community among students and faculty. The presentation covered the key objectives of the research, the methodologies employed, and preliminary findings that contribute to the understanding of the field. Engaging with peers and receiving feedback enriched the work and facilitated connections with fellow researchers.
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">Visual Dichotomies symposium</span><br /><br /><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">University of Arts, London, March 2024</span><br /><br />How do we conceptualise research and the formation of theoretical frameworks, as well as the notion of research as inherently entwined with artistic practice? Is there a distinct clarity in the intersections of these domains, or does the relationship remain inherently ambiguous? This inquiry aims to dissect and elaborate on the multifaceted perspectives surrounding research within the arts, focusing specifically on the duality of practice as research and theory as a form of practice. Our objective is to illuminate how research in the visual arts manifests in practice through a combination of scholarly readings, stimulating discussions, and collaborative efforts.<br />
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In this context, I had the privilege of co-organising the symposium alongside Caterina Albano and Northeastern University in Boston. My role extended beyond coordination; I actively participated as a speaker and presented my research paper, contributing to the rich dialogue and collaborative exploration of these themes within the arts research community.<br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">TrAIN Forum, <span style="color: rgba(11, 11, 11, 0.93);">February 2024</span></span><span style="color: rgba(11, 11, 11, 0.93);"><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">University of Arts, London, March 2024</span><br />
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Established in 2004, the Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN) engages in comprehensive research that spans historical, theoretical, and practice-oriented dimensions within the fields of art, architecture, craft, and design. <br />
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The centre's research initiatives are motivated by a critical examination of prevailing concepts of globalisation. TrAIN seeks to broaden the discourse by introducing alternative perspectives that address pressing issues such as social injustice, the decolonisation of cultural institutions, and the development of a more inclusive and diverse global narrative in art history.<br />
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During my participation in this scholarly forum, I presented a detailed overview of my PhD research, highlighting my ongoing progress and the implications of my findings within the context of TrAIN's broader objectives. My presentation aimed to contribute to the critical dialogue on how artistic practices can serve as catalysts for social change and help reframe our understanding of cultural identity in a transnational context.
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">Tbilisi Bristol Association talk, <span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85);">March 2024</span></span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85);"><br />
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A presentation was delivered to the members of the Bristol Tbilisi Association about the ongoing research entitled, “Collective Art Practices in Georgia 1985-1995: Collaborative Strategies for Addressing Political Turbulence.” This work explores the role of collaborative artistic practices in navigating the political challenges of that era. </span><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.46;">Why Remember?: Reframing Trauma</span>
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Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 2024<br /><br />
</span>The ‘<b>Why Remember?’ </b>conference 2024 addressed the complex and contested questions
that face post-conflict societies. What should we remember, what should we forget, and,
ultimately, why? How can traumatic pasts be engaged with in the present in productive ways?
It will explore the role of publicly visible memory and its potential impact on issues such as
reconciliation and healing in the wake of conflict and how, either consciously or
unconsciously, memory processes shape the present and the future. These questions of
memory (and forgetting) are intensely political and have far-reaching consequences, and thus
these debates are vital to institutions of cultural memory that engage with the past to make
sense of the present and build a more peaceful future.
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<span style="line-height: 1;"><b><span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">Leading Tr</span><span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">AIN PhD Student Seminars</span>,<br />
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<span style="color: rgba(13, 12, 12, 0.93); --font-scale: 1.5;"><b><span style="--font-scale: 1.12;">University of the Arts, London</span><br />
</b></span><br /><b><span style="--font-scale: 1.3;">Slavs & Tatars, December 2024</span></b><br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.12;"></span></span><span style="line-height: 1;">Slavs and Tatars is an internationally renowned art collective devoted to an area East of the former Berlin Wall and West of the Great Wall of China known as Eurasia. Since its inception in 2006, the collective has shown a keen grasp of polemical issues in society, clearing new paths for contemporary discourse via a wholly idiosyncratic form of knowledge production, including popular culture, spiritual and esoteric traditions, oral histories, modern myths, as well as scholarly research. Their work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions across the globe, including the Vienna Secession; MoMA, New York; Salt, Istanbul; Albertinum Dresden, amongst others. The collective’s practice is based on three activities: exhibitions, publications, and lecture-performances. The collective has published more than twelve books to date, including their first children’s book, Azbuka Strikes Back with Walther und Franz König. In 2020, Slavs and Tatars opened Pickle Bar, a Slavic aperitivo bar-cum-project space a few doors down from their studio in the Moabit district of Berlin, as well as a residency and mentorship program for young professionals from the region.
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<br />I led the seminar that looked at Slav & Tatar’s extensive work on language and how this informs our understanding of regionalism.<br />
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<span style="--font-scale: 1.3;"><b>Kateryna Botanova, February 2025</b></span><br />
<i>Becoming local: decolonial practices in visual arts in post-Maidan Ukraine</i><br />
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In the book Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climate Regime, Bruno Latour underlines the acute need for “carrying out two complementary movements that the ordeal of modernisation has made contradictory: attaching oneself to a particular patch of soil on the one hand, having access to the global world on the other.” Even though Latour’s message was primarily addressed to the Global North, which needed to reattach itself to the localities that were uncomfortably changing due to climate change and global migration, it has its urgency when read from outside the power node of the Global West. <br />
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The decolonial ‘reattachment to a particular patch of soil’ is a fight for regaining agency and voice, which is one’s own and the hierarchies that are implied within. However, these movements are often seen (and blamed) as nationalistic and driven by exclusive identity politics in the West.<br />
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The presentation by Kateryna focused on changes in visual art practices in Ukraine after 2014 that, instead of attempting to be ‘global’ and ‘universal,’ focused on localities and personal histories, on the meaning of being rooted, connected, caring, and responsible for them, and inquires about their invisibility for “Western” eyes.<br />
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<span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85);">Ria Keburia Foundation, August 2025<br /><br />
Invited as a speaker at the “ before and after silence “, a lecture series, workshops and a multimedia exhibition. The project explored the discipline of collapsology through multimedia art installations and centred on an exhibition which opened on 8th September, Tbilisi, Georgia. </span>
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<h2 style="color: rgba(14, 4, 4, 0.85); --font-scale: 1.12; line-height: 1;"><a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/almaty-museum-of-arts/a-history-in-acts-and-gestures" target="_blank">TATE MODERN</a> x <a href="other-set" rel="history">ALMATY MUSEUM OF ARTS</a><br /><br />
</h2><span style="--font-scale: 1.5;">HISTORY IN ACTS AND GESTURES: Performance, Central Asia and the Caucasus</span><br />
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<b>Almaty, Kazakhstan, 3-4 October 2025</b><br />
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The moving, sounding, performing body exists in connection with the world. It helps us both experience it and define our place in it. This gathering begins with gestures, sounds, and movements from across Central Asia and the Caucasus. From there, we ask: how does performance respond to changing social and political conditions? How does it open new ways of living and relating to the world around us?<br />
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What kinds of memory, strength, and knowledge live in the body? How does focusing on the body change the way we think about existing histories and art histories? What other ways of telling stories and witnessing appear through live performance?<br />
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I presented 𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒂 1985–95: 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝒅𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝑻𝒖𝒓𝒃𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 and talked about how artists responded to the politically turbulent decade of 1985-1995.<br />
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