‘‘Connecting Georgia” (2019-2020)

Connecting Georgia (2019-2020) is an artistic project that aims at developing and discussing tools that can be helpful to tackle the challenges for sites with post-industrial cultural heritage.

The project connects the city of Batumi with other European cities engaged in the Memory of Water Creative Europe EU project.

Check out a Video collage prepared by Giorgi Gogiberidze (photos by @IIrakli Dzneladze)  within "Connecting Georgia" (2019-2020)

The first stage of the project was held in Gdansk, Poland during City Lab & Artistic Residency between 14-19 October, 2019. In this event from Georgia participated BIAFF (Batumi International Art-House Film Festival) representatives and Irakli Dznealdze (photographer) .

Project coordiantor - INTERCULT (Sweden), project partner from Georgia - BIAFF.

Batumi in Georgia is a fast-developing city on the Black Sea coast. During the last decades the city’s cultural heritage, especially in the Old Town, is suffering from the results of rapid development, and the history and the cultural memories are slowly disappearing. It is a vital challenge for Batumi to embrace the urban development and find tools for safeguarding the history of the city. This discourse is ongoing in partner cities of the Creative Europe partnership Memory of Water, especially in Gdansk in Poland where the discourse about the post-industrial heritage area of the Old Shipyard/ Young City has been intensified during the last two years. This has also been observed in Port of Lindholmen & Port of Stockholm in Sweden and Govan Docks in Scotland, which are other examples of cities with rapid urban transformation affecting post-industrial cultural heritage as result. These shared challenges and experiences made the partners wish to connect Batumi to the ongoing artistic project Memory of Water. To read more about this project follow Intercult's website.