Summer Salons X Art 4 Collaborative Futures
How do we create, collaborate and understand our future inspired by artists?
Teaming up with French Art 4 Collaborative Futures we invited art lovers, artists and art professionals to a virtual Summer Salon on July 7 on Memory, Legacy, Collaborations, to learn more about how artists and art professional support and self-organise the art scene. The discussion took us to Georgia, Ukraine and Serbia in the brilliant company of Irena Popiashvili, Alex Fisher, artists Nino Kvrivishvili and Vladimir Miladinović.
Alex Fisher who is a writer and curator from Buffalo, New York, based in Kyiv, where he is researching Ukrainian contemporary art as a Fulbright scholar. He has led and supported initiatives for the Estate of Ana Mendieta via Galerie Lelong & Co., the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Yoko Ono’s Studio One, and Wanås Konst, amongst others. He contributes to the likes of Kajet, This is Badland, GUEST R00MS, VONO, and C-print. @walexfisher
Irena Popiashvili, is the Dean and founder of Visual Arts, Architecture & Design School, VA[A}DS, at the Free University of Tbilisi. Since returning to her native Georgia 8 years ago, Irena has become a primary connector between the Georgian art scene and the rest of the art world. She is also an instigator and educator within her home country, where she orchestrates exhibitions, and has established the roving Kunsthalle Tbilisi, an institution that exhibits radical artworks and supports Georgia-based artists. Previously she co-owned Newman Popiashvili Gallery in New York (2005-2012) and served as a director of the State Academy of Arts in Tbilisi in 2012. She has curated exhibitions in the US and Europe such as the Georgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and 2003.
Vladimir Miladinović is an artist invited by Alex Fisher. He’s living and working in Belgrade, Serbia. The laureate of the 53rd October Salon Award, he works extensively with politics of memory and has exhibited widely across Europe and the United States. Miladinović is represented by Eugster Belgrade, where his latest body of work, The Notebook (2020), is on view until September 5, 2020.
Nino Kvrivishvili is a young Georgian artist living and working in Tbilisi, Georgia. She has exhibited extensively in Georgia and abroad. She makes handwoven wool tapestries that resemble large-scale paintings. Before the advent of textile industry rugs have been woven in almost all regions of Georgia. She’s also using her family’s history in her work as well as the complex process of buying wool and weaving, and of the people she comes into contact with – and their stories. @ninokvrivishvili
The talk was curated and moderated by: Sofia Bertilsson, International Art Advisor and made possible by support from Konstfrämjandet Skåne, People's Movements for Art Promotion. Stay tuned for the next Salon in early September.