Zugdidi Contemporary Art Festival to mark 2020 run in Georgia's west

Artists creating in literature, cinema and music will converge to western Georgian city of Zugdidi this weekend for the third edition of F5, the Zugdidi Contemporary Art Festival that aims to bring currents of the modern scene to audiences beyond Georgia's capital.

In Zugdidi Botanical Garden, a historical park established by the western nobility in the 19th century, organisers will bring their customary literary and music programme, but also widen the scope with addition of a documentary film section.

In the programme with the largest line-up of creatives, award-winning and popular local authors including Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili, Zurab Karumidze and Tamta Melashvili will celebrate literature with their audience. The author-audience meetings will involve discussions of challenges facing both sides of the artistic process to facilitate "substantive" panels, festival organiser and co-founder Giorgi Shonia told Formula TV channel.

Festival co-founder Giorgi Shonia told Formula TV channel the festival attracted visitors from cities across the Samegrelo province, representing a rare opportunity for art enthusiasts to see cultural events in their locality. Photo via Zugdidi Contemporary Art Festival.

Organisers of the 2020 edition of the festival will also host a retrospective of the Tbilisi International Festival of Literature - under the umbrella of which the Zugdidi festival is run this year - between the years 2015-2019, and hand out the Terenti Graneli Award, named after the major figure of 20th century Georgian poetry.

Films by Amiran Dolidze, winner of the Batumi International Arthouse Film Festival prize for Animal, and Irine Jordania, director of the 2020 European Short Film Award-nominated 12 K. Marx Street, will have their acclaimed works screened and discussed at the festival.

Finally, in the musical programme, artist Shota Adamashvili, known for his performances of country music, and the band Tserili will take to the stage to mark the third dimension of the festival's agenda.

The Zugdidi festival was formed with the aim of "decentralising artistic processes" - with cultural events usually centred around capital Tbilisi - and contribute to participation of young artists in the local scene in the west of Georgia. Shonia told a Formula TV programme visitors flocked to the festival from other cities of the Samegrelo province for a chance to see cultural events in their locality.