Culture Week Tbilisi: The new intersectional event in support of Ukraine

By

Triana Alonso

Translated by
Roberta HERRERA

Published
Sep 21, 2022

Georgia will once again become the epicenter of culture and alternative fashion. Between November 3 and 7, its capital city will host an innovative cultural event at Factory Tbilisi, a cultural space that was formerly a Coca-Cola factory and has recently been refurbished as the location for the capital's fashion week.

The event is organized by fashion expert Sofia Tchkonia, founder of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi, together with collector Eugene Bereznitsky, creator of the Kyiv Art Week International Festival and the Kyiv Art Fair, and art specialist and promoter of Ukrainian culture Serge Kerbitskyi.

Along the lines of the last Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi and the Kyiv Fashion & Arts Days, an event dedicated to fashion and design organized in the Ukrainian capital a few months before the outbreak of the war, this newly created event will weave alliances between artistic fields with the aim of supporting Ukrainian culture and creativity. The concept is none other than to present a creative breeding ground for artists, designers, musicians, art curators and international media professionals to "showcase the importance of freedom, democratic values and truth". It should be noted that Georgia has been suffering the consequences of the Russian invasion since 2008.

Although the official list of participants has not yet been announced, there are already some confirmed names such as The Quatro ballet, Ukrainian electro-acoustic group DZ'OB BAND, Tbilisi-based queer art collective Fungus and Ukrainian artist Arsen Savadov.

"The brutal and merciless war raging in the heart of Europe is much more than a quest for new territories: it is a battle of opposing ideologies, of tyranny and freedom, of past and future, of darkness and light. As culture is a sword of light that has been at the center of social changes throughout history, the event's goal is to talk about the painful reality of the present, in which we continue to fight against colonialism and imperialism," said the organizers of the event, which will be unveiling its final official calendar in the coming weeks.