Urban challenges, alternatives explored in River's Magic Garden festival

An artistic exploration of urban development, reaction to the prevalent reality in urban spaces and questions of environmental challenges will be posed for those flocking to Tbilisi's Mtkvari riverbank for a week-long River's Magic Garden festival starting Tuesday.

Throughout the next week, Georgian and foreign contemporary creatives will present their works at a small meadow at the confluence of rivers Vere and Mtkvari in Tbilisi, in an effort to bring life to the normally deserted banks of the latter in the city.

Selected specifically for the festival at its inauguration last year, the area sits between the concrete quay delineating the boundary between the adjacent streets and Mtkvari, and offers organisers space for making use of its space for socialising.

[The location] will host local and international cultural events on one side and will also provide visitors to the invisible and mysterious place as a potential social space," a preview from the organisers said.

The designation of the space, and the long-standing challenge of utilising Mtkvari banks for connecting the city's social life to the river splitting it in half, will also be reflected in works by artists, centred around urban development and environment.

The concept that served as the basis for the 2020 edition of the festival represents an "artistic reaction" to both general urban realities as well as "particular places and current societal discourses", hosts of the event announced.

Over a dozen local creatives will bring their works for displays supported by Creative Georgia, a state programme for supporting creative industries and events. The displays will showcase creations by Nino Chubinishvili AKA Chubika, Temur Bakuradze, Mamuka Samkharadze, Gvantsa Jishkariani, Giorgi Geladze, Giorgi Mozgovoi, Giorgi Tsagareli, Nika Kutateladze, Ninutsa Shatberashvili, Sandro Sulaberidze, Keti Siamashvili, Nodar Khachiauri and Ilia Makharadze.

Another line-up will see audio artists bring daily performances to the spot in the evening, with Levan Shanidze, Community Radio Tbilisi, Jorjick, Scott McCulloch, Tamo Nasidze, Berika and Radio Antenna entertaining audiences.

Workshops and book presentations will round off the programme for this year's edition of the festival, with full details on destination, directions and line-ups available on the social media event page.