Giorgi Rodionov
Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is that you do?
“My name is Giorgi Rodionov. I come from Georgia, and I’m a curator and an artist. At the same time, I run an art space, a collective organisation, called Untitled Tbilisi. We’ve been running since 2019, so it’s been about 6 years now. We are working for queer and feminist rights in the region, and we are trying to bring artists in as a tool for opening up a space for dialogue in the South Caucasus region.
Our organisation also hosts artists in exile. Essentially, we supported artists who were in danger from their own communities and brought them to Tbilisi in order to be safe. Over the past two to three years, we’ve hosted around 15 different artists who had to escape their homes for fear of their lives or freedoms being taken away. However, now that Tbilisi is becoming more and more unsafe, we are actively trying to broaden our horizons and work more with and in Europe.
The last thing we do, in collaboration with other organisations from the region, is host a platform that supports queer and feminist artists. Recently, it’s been based in Berlin due to safety issues here. Even then, some artists still fear going back to their communities or countries after the event because being together in the same room with other queer feminists can sometimes cause trouble.
We ended up losing our physical exhibition space last year but, before that, we would organise screenings, talks, exhibitions, festivals, et cetera. We would also travel around the region. Now, we’ve basically become decentralised for all of our activities. Instead of being concentrated in one building or in one room, we work, in collaboration with other public spaces and organisations. For example, this past February, we hosted Performance Art Week in 10 different locations around Tbilisi. All of our colleagues did such an amazing job.”
Could you explain a bit more about the challenges that you’re facing in Georgia as a queer and feminist organisation?
“Last year, they introduced a new law in Georgia which defined any person or organisation getting more than 20% of their financial support from institutions and/or individuals abroad as ‘foreign agents.’ They claimed it was about fostering transparency but, in reality, it suppresses all organisations, media outlets, and NGOs that work on human rights. Now, if you’re working in this field, it’s almost impossible to get any funding from outside sources.
There are around 30,000 NGOs registered in Georgia which is a relatively large amount for a small country of around 4 million people. Most of them, I would say, used to get money from abroad – mostly from EU countries or from the US. Evidently, for our government, this was a huge problem because they saw that all those NGOs were monitoring their human rights abuses. Of course, there were lots of demonstrations but the government didn’t care. There are actually more demonstrations going on right now, and the government is using a lot of violence against the demonstrators. Seeing that Untitled Tbilisi is an organisation that is working for queer rights, it makes us a direct target. At the moment, most of our projects are funded by foreign organisations, so we are trying to find other methods of funding in order to avoid being targeted by the government.
If that all weren’t enough, the Georgian government also recently passed an anti-LGBTQIA+ ‘propaganda’ law which is really disturbing. Essentially, it forbids any kind of assembly in support of queer communities. It also forbids transgender people from getting any kind of gender-affirming medical treatment. It forbids cinemas from showing anything that can be considered queer as well as bans a long list of books with queer themes.We’ve recently launched a GoFundMe to help support the artists on the frontlines fight for democracy and free expression. All donations will go toward purchasing essential protection materials, supporting the creation of resistance art and performances, and (if necessary) emergency relocation assistance.”
Could you describe for us the most emotionally-impactful creative project that you’ve worked on to date?
“I would say that our relocation work has been the most impactful to me. Our current plan is to continue helping people relocate to Berlin or to other parts of Europe as we evaluate the current situation in Georgia. Before, we didn’t focus heavily on relocating Georgian artists because it was still considered safe within the country. There was no need for urgent relocation as movement inside the country was sufficient in most cases. Most of the people we helped were coming to Georgia from other countries like Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, or Russia. We might need to, eventually, find another way to relocate people but, for now, that’s where we’re at.”
Why arts, culture, and conflict transformation?
“I think art is one of the best tools that can bring people together on the same page. For example, I’ve seen a lot of people come together on the dance floor despite their totally different mentalities and political views. Once they start to talk to each other, however, they usually realise that it’s easy to find something in common.. Art has the power to bring people together without using a dry approach which forces them together. In our experience, they will seldom end up engaging in talks like this. There needs to be some kind of impulse, some kind of spark, to make the space comfortable for both parties.
We see it everyday. Art helps us take a step forward, but it only takes one politician to decide one random thing that sets us 10 steps back. We see this now in Georgia, and I feel everything is just collapsing. But, we just keep on building.”
What is one piece of content that profoundly impacted the way you view and/or work in this field?
“I would say that the work of our colleagues from Salaam Cinema in Baku, Azerbaijan has really inspired me. They started out at about the same time that we did, and we’ve been developing our work together for quite some time. I’m very inspired by how they are dealing with these issues in Azerbaijan. I absolutely adore them, and you should definitely check them out.”
If you could give yourself one piece of advice 20 years ago, knowing what you know now, what would it be?
“Safety comes first. Nothing really matters if even one person is endangered because of your work. Safety also doesn’t just mean physical safety, but it also includes mental safety. Obviously, in these situations, it’s very hard to protect yourself and know how to deal with these issues. This fact is exactly why I think we need to really make sure that we do everything to avoid any kind of dangerous situation for our community – especially because of our actions. Now, I constantly ask people, before starting work on these kinds of projects, what kind of impact they think it will have on them and whether or not they still want to move forward with the project. This is the most important thing for me.”