Tbilisi hosts local, foreign artists at contemporary art show

Georgia’s capital Tbilisi is gearing up for the annual Artisterium International Contemporary Art Exhibition by inviting almost 100 local and international artists and nine curators to present their work at venues around the city.

The eighth instalment of the event - based on the theme What’s on your mind? – will launch on Friday and continue for 10 days. The intent of this year’s event was for artists to share their thoughts using colour and canvas.

The 2015 Artisterium will feature participants from more than a dozen countries including the United States, France, United Kingdom, Poland and the Netherlands. The artists’ creations will be presented in ten venues, such as the Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi History Museum, Europe House and Goethe Institute Georgia.

‘Pastoral Landscape with a Nuclear Explosion’ by Volodymyr Budnikov. Photo by Artisterium International Contemporary Art Exhibition.

Organisers of the event said they had drawn inspiration for the 2015 theme from the widely-known question asked by social network Facebook to its users as they updated their ‘current status’.

While social networks give their users every ability to express themselves, this year’s Artisterium takes the question "What’s on your mind?” to the artists to present their ‘answers’ on the real ‘walls’ of the exhibition locations,” said organisers while announcing the exhibition.

The annual expo was organised by the Artisterium Association with support from the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia.

The maiden exhibition was held in 2008 and each year the theme of the event changes. This year’s occasion will continue until November 16.

Full information on participating artists, themes and a full program of the event can be viewed here.