Tbilisi Common Architecture Biennial 2020: “What Do We Have In Common“ October 17 – November 8, 2020

Open Call announcement of the Future Architecture Member Tbilisi Common Architecture Biennial 2020. The main topic of the biennial which is scheduled to take place on October 17 – November 8 2020 is What Do We Have in Common.

Open Call Application deadline: July 31, 2020 by 23:59  CET.

Important dates

Submissions open: 22 June 2020
Submissions close: 31 July 2020
Selections announced: 17 August 2020

Applications and all related questions should be directed to the following e-mail: submit@biennial.ge. Please indicate in the subject line the title of the category you are applying for. Applicants will receive confirmation of receipt of submitted documents within 24 hours. In case, confirmation is not received please, resubmit the application package once again.

The tentative version of the TAB 2020 platform can be visited and viewed at the following link: http://biennial.ge

Tbilisi Architecture Biennial will accept proposals for its International Open Call from June 22 through July 31, 2020. The winning proposals will be realized during the event in October/November 2020 digitally and physically in selected locations in Tbilisi and around the world.

The notion of “commons” unites open resources of any kind: natural, cultural, spatial, material and immaterial – of which ownership and access is shared. These common resources need to be maintained, as do the collection of practices that govern and preserve them. Yet Georgia's rapid shift to a neoliberal political system in the 1990s resulted in a new understanding of these commons – resources that are open for commodification and individualization. As finite resources, these commons need to be sustained, nurtured and managed by communities and professionals. Architects, urbanists and state institutions have a fundamental role to play in the reclamation of the commons – no more so than in Tbilisi.

The second edition of the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, which is conceived under the name What Do We Have in Common proposes to take a closer look at the notion of commonness in our increasingly individualized and fragmented societies. After the dramatic collapse of the Soviet Union, several barely recognized countries were added to the world map. These newly born “post-socialist” states had to undergo an inevitable but painful transformation from planned to a market economy – an economic transition that has been expressed in both the city's cultural norms and its urban fabric. A “collectively” organized society became increasingly individualized, the planned urban spaces turned into more fragmented and divided ones. The entire process of urban and socio-economic transition seemed to forget the feeling of common space and collectivity. Spaces of common inhabitation and collective use have become predominantly infrastructural, turning into spaces of transition and uninterrupted functionality.

Location

Virtual space

The second edition of the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial will be carried out in a digital space where the website will become the main platform of the event. It will incorporate various media in order to support diverse formats of events. Shifting the Biennial online will ensure a wider outreach and participation on a global scale. It will become a transcontinental event, activating different places worldwide and spilling its activities beyond Tbilisi. In parallel to being able to avoid the challenges imposed by the pandemic, the digital platform will open up many more possibilities and introduce new spaces for creativity that can implement ideas in new ways.

The Biennial as a platform is conceived as space, which will bring together all emerging works, discussions and ideas under one roof. The TAB 2020 website will be formed by a digital building prototype, which will be slowly filled with the activities realized during the TAB 2020 and evolve into a common symbolic structure. The proposed ideas can be realized anywhere in the world, as long as they can be digitally presented through the TAB 2020 platform. The works will be available for “visiting” on the platform through live streaming during the period of biennial and later archived and made accessible on the website. Each category of activities/works will take place on a separate floor.

Who can apply 

All interested architects, artists, writers, scholars, urbanists, creative individuals regardless of location, age or past experience are invited to submit a proposal. The application process is free of charge.

Submission  process

 We accept proposals in four different categories:

1. Physical projects (works/research in any physical format)
2. Digital projects (works/research in any digital media format)
3. Educational activity / Workshop (digital or physical)
4. Contributions to publication.

Applications must be submitted in English or Georgian. All received proposals will be rated by an international jury anonymously, based on the quality of the idea and its direct reference to the main concept of TAB 2020. Selected projects will have an opportunity to be realized in a digital or physical format with no limit to geographic locations. All projects must have a clear relation to the theme of the Biennial What Do We Have In Common.

All the details You can find at: Tbilisi Architecture Biennial 2020 or Future Architecture