Tbilisi presentation to unveil book on city’s urban transformation

A brand-new documentary project on rapid architectural and urban transformation of Tbilisi and its effects will be unveiled today in Georgia’s capital after the book project was successfully crowdfunded on the web.

Tbilisi — Archive of Transition is a publication bringing together years of research work documenting changes in the city that have seen it "wake up with a new face every morning”, its creators say.

Publishers, researchers and artists from Georgia, the United States and Germany collected the material over a period of more than three years. [This has resulted in a book that] is a snapshot of a city in transition”, said a summary of the work.

The documentary project has involved researchers, urbanists and other professionals. Photo: organisers of Kickstarter campaign for the book.

Subjects feature in the book include the trend of a reduction of public spaces in Tbilisi, problems of the city’s development influenced by market interests and the public protests against the phenomenon.

Chapters of the book — listed on the Kickstarter page — include contributions by city planner Zurab Bakradze, landscape architect Sara Cowles and activist Elene Margvelashvili.

Other parts of the publication come from journalists Ben Knight and Sebastian Pranz, with images by artists Mamuka Japharidze, Fabian Weiss and Lexo Soselia serving to illustrate the work.

A preview of the book’s section. Photo: organisers of Kickstarter campaign for the book.

Authors of the work have revealed the book is projected to feature documentary material on Tbilisi’s urban history from private and public archives never published before.

A crowdfunding campaign for funding Tbilisi — Archive of Transition, launched last month on online platform Kickstarter, successfully raised the funds before its March 28 deadline.

The project will be formally presented by researchers and authors involved in its creation later today, at the city’s Fotografia gallery.

The project of the book is supported by the Goethe Institute Georgia, the German Foreign Office, DVV International, the Heinrich Boell Foundation South Caucasus, the Georgian National Book Centre, the HFBK School of Design Hamburg and the Washington University St. Louis.