Opening of Tbilisi Photo Festival 2022
On September 23 at 7:00 PM, the opening of the annual international photo festival Tbilisi Photo Festival 2022 took place in Tbilisi. The festival is being held at the Tbilisi Photography and Multimedia Museum, located on the second floor of the Stamba loft.
At the festival opening, two exhibitions were presented: the photo exhibition Ukraine Runs Through It and the long-term performance project with photographic documentation Licking War Wounds.
Most of the space was taken up by Ukraine Runs Through It, created by Justyna Mielnikiewicz, who from 2014 to 2019 worked on a photo book of the same name, telling the story of Ukraine through photographs from the 2014 Revolution of Dignity up to 2019.
But this exhibition also includes some of her more recent works, going all the way up to 2022.
The second exhibition available at the festival opening was the performance Licking War Wounds by Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva, who for five years, from 2016 to 2021, literally licked a tank made of rock salt every week.
As a result, the project became a series of photographs in which at first there is a full tank model, while by the end only the stick and base it once stood on remain. The full series can be viewed on the project’s Instagram.
The entire floor of the exhibition space is designed as a map of Ukraine, with city names and the Dnipro River marked on it.
Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro
In one corner of the space there is a kind of "reading room", where visitors can browse through a large number of photo albums and books by different photographers.
A book featuring photographs by Magnum Photos photographers
And since this is still Georgia, of course the opening would not have been complete without wine. In one corner of the hall there were two small tables: one with wine and light snacks for the festival guests, and another small chillout area.
Conclusion
The festival will run until the end of December 2022. During that time, the exhibitions will change several times, and other events will also take place, such as a book presentation and public discussions.
The next upcoming event is a roundtable discussion with the festival exhibition authors on the topic "And all arts became futile?", which will take place on September 26 at 7:00 PM.
Additional information can be found on the festival’s website and on its official Instagram account.
How to get there
The museum is located on the second floor of the Stamba loft. To get there, you need to enter through the main entrance of the Stamba hotel, walk into the lobby and turn left, then go straight to the restaurant, enter it, walk about halfway through it and turn right. Then go a little farther, and on your right you’ll see the exit to the staircase. Go up those stairs to the second floor, and voilà — you’re there.
Route to the museum entrance
Under normal circumstances, the museum is open from 12:00 to 19:00 on weekdays and from 14:00 to 20:00 on weekends, but on festival event days the opening hours may differ.