Sunday, July 20, 2003
Foreigner
July-August 2003
Former Wine Factory, Tbilisi
 
The project Foreigner was realized in the Summer of 2003 and involved 6 Georgian and 6 Netherlands-based artists that worked together for 2 months in Tbilisi, Georgia and set up a collaborative exhibition that was shown the first to the Georgian and later to the Dutch public.

The theme of the project, foreigner, was with a broad understanding of the word. It can mean physical person coming from another country, somebody you don’t understand anything about or allude to the position of art and artist in the society. This one word, foreigner, can also have a very different perception to it. For Georgians it stands for rich, smiling person with photo camera and no worries and for Dutch - poor, emigrant, rude.

During the two months working period group of international artists worked together, reacted on each other, on the city and its political and social aspects. The working period and exhibition took place on the territory of old wine factory in Tbilisi, giving the location a new meaning. Later the same show was presented to the Dutch public in the framework of ‘Georgian Days’ organized by Felix Meritis Foundation in Amsterdam. The project had a very positive response in Tbilisi, as well as in the Netherlands, attracting many visitors and media attention.

Participating artist:
Tamar Chabashvili (GEO/NL), Zura Macharashvili (GEO), Lado Darakhvelidze (GEO), Sophia Bazgadze (GEO), Sophia Tabatadze (GEO), Ani Riaboshenko (GEO), Xiang Yan Yang (CN), Nanna van Heest (NL), Kirsten Leenaars (NL), Adriel van Drimmelen (USA/NL), Lovve Geeven (NL)

The project was realized in collaboration with:
Felix Meritis Foundation and De Phenix Foundation

Project was financially supported by:
Amsterdam Foundation for the arts; 
De Phenix Foundation;
Haëlla foundation;
Georgian Glass and Mineral Water Company;
The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Georgia;
The Dutch foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB).