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The Storm in Our Seas

Art Residency Program

 
Tbilisi Photo Festival & COBERM

Tbilisi Photo Festival is glad to announce an open call for the residency program The Storm in Our Seas for Georgian and Abkhaz visual artists and creative individuals under the age of 35 based in Tbilisi and Sukhum/i.  

The storm in Our Seas is a metaphor for the adverse contexts each of us has to swim through; be it historical, political, social, or personal. Caught in the midst of historical hurricanes, held hostage by political hails, we find ourselves wrapped in the mists of ambiguity. Burdened by the obligation for extreme homogeneity and intolerance of the other, our ships are about to be wrecked against the cliff of obsessive objectification.

These Storms in Our Seas could also denote the struggles between public and private, between generational gaps and domineering social norms; those could also be about fluidity and relativity of these conditions.  

The artists are invited to work within the whole scope of these meanings, be it historic storms, or personal ones determined by time and space. 

A group of artists selected through the announced open call will work closely with the participants of the first residency program In The Shadow of the Big Trees and will have a joint public presentation of the resulting artworks in February 2022.

The Storm in Our Seas is the second edition of the Art in residency program organized in the frame of the project “Subtropical Cultures: A platform for Artistic Exchanges”. 

The duration of the residence is 4 months (October 2021 – January 2022). The program mainly consists of online meetings and includes:
 

• A 4-month work process with an international visual arts expert who will mentor each selected artist in creating the work. 

• The artists will also work closely with the residency program curators to provide them with professional assistance at all stages of the residency process. 

• In addition, the program includes lectures with renowned international visual artists as well as experts in contemporary history. The residency program will conclude an in-person group meeting in February 2022 to work on the public presentation of the results of the residency — an exhibition and a publication.

Selected artists will receive a 1,700 Gel stipendium.

To apply for the residency, please send the following documents in Georgian and English: 

— Description of the artwork to be developed during the residency (max. 300 words) 

— Portfolio in PDF format (not larger than 5 MB) 

— CV
 

To the address: info@tbilisiphotofestival.com 

Please mark in email subject: Art Residency Program — Application 

Application Deadline — October 5th, 2021.

The residency project is implemented by Tbilisi Photo Festival in partnership with COBERM, an apolitical, impartial, and flexible program funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Literature Initiative Georgia and Konrad Adenauer Fund are also the project’s partners.   

Cover image: © Zura Jishkariani. The Catastrophe is Subtropical Eden, 2020. Self-published book, limited edition. Realized as part of the Subtropical Cultures residency program.