River’s Magic Garden contemporary art fest to explore futurology in 2021 edition
Exploration of society's projections of the future and evolution of disciplines is at the heart of the 221 theme for the festival. Image via CCA.
Tweet 
Share
An exploration of visions of future will bring this year's edition of River’s Magic Garden contemporary art festival to life starting this Friday, with works by 20 Georgian artists, discussions, screenings and audio performances comprising the event.
Organisers have prepared an expanded programme for the third running of the festival that was started with a proximity to the confluence of Mtkvari and Vere rivers in Tbilisi, on a previously neglected river bank location.
The 2021 edition will focus on a group of Georgian creatives bringing their installations and works to the location to explore futurology and science fiction concepts.
This topic seems particularly relevant in a transformative, post-soviet reality, where each and every shift is painfully evocative of the powerlessness the people see in the creation of their own future
- exhibition organisers
They will delve into the subjects of exploring society's imaginations of the future, projections of "the evolution of disciplines and social patterns", and subsequent experimentation enabled by these, through their site-specific works.
The week-long event will then switch over to a series of talks at the Tbilisi-based Center of Contemporary Art, where writers, artists and academicians will discuss themes ranging from the genre of science fiction to the Georgian scene of the literary fiction. These will run between October 23-28 at the CCA venue.
In the third section of River’s Magic Garden, video and film screenings organised by the Georgian Video Art Archive project will bring works by filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki, journalist and photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and other creators to visitors of the event.
Both the screenings and the final element of the festival - a series of audio performances - will run between October 22-29, also at the CCA space, located at 10 Dodo Abashidze Street in Tbilisi.
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.
An online group display bringing together works by Georgian and foreign creatives is taking a look at questions of creative possibilities in changed global circumstances amid the pandemic.
As the physical art scenes remain in shutdown due to the new coronavirus outbreak, works by 30 Georgian creatives explore the "new reality" in a digital group show available in videogame form on the internet.
An untouched natural spot at the confluence of two rivers in Tbilisi will transform into a contemporary art festival offering displays, workshops and music performances over a week starting this Friday.
A group display of contemporary creatives next week will map six locations in districts of Georgia's capital Tbilisi, introducing visitors to the exhibition spots via a digital guide, and aiming for a synthesis of social and natural environments in the process.
Questions of cultural reference in videogame form and multimedia will be explored by a group exhibition at Tbilisi Photography and Multimedia Museum starting this Thursday, with interactivity for viewers and series of meetings packaged as part of the display.