description/introduction by Esma Berikishvili: "This paper examines the emergence of the ‘alternative’ culture in Georgia in 2006 and maps the structure of the artistic field.
I focus my study on artistic collaboration “Eurasian Laboratory” and I argue, by using Anthony Cohen’s theory of symbolic construction of community, that they create an ‘alternative’ community through art as a social activity.Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of field and practice, I show how the artistic field is formed and influenced by several political happenings in Georgia from 1917 till 2003.
I expose the issue of cultural policy in order to understand the priorities of the State in cultural field and to examine how the State apparatus by providing the dominant symbolic system, excludes ‘alternative’ cultural forms, forms that do not fit in State’s understanding of culture. Following this lines, I trace how artists engage in struggle for legitimation over proper/improper modes of expression.
I will also demonstrate how “Eurasian Laboratory” with using subversive cultural forms produces an alternative space for creating music, prose and poetry, which is free from any kind of aesthetic and political restrictions. In addition, I analyze how Georgian context as well as external forces affects formation of the community and art, by looking at the deeper levels of “Laboratory’s” art works."
new book by Esma Berikishvili -- ELY - smART GROUPware: "Eurasian Laboratory": Poetry, Prose, Music and Politics in Georgia
description of book: <The artistic wonderland of Georgia - full of passion, breeze of Chernobyl, five floors Khrushovka's, professor grandfathers and drug addict fathers, black sea and mains of Chiatura, beautiful girls and boys, abandoned industrial buildings and dreams about Georgian Cosmonavtica - seen through theoretical prism. The book takes you to the world of Georgian artists who in their twenties experienced war, fear, darkness, cold, drug addiction, alcoholism, three unsuccessful attempts to build the state and consequently became abhorrent enough to "dance on the ruins". Follow the book and let new artistic viruses in.>
the book will introduce to you the brief history of Georgian cultural field and state ideology, 80-90s underground art and contemporary art-practice by smART-GROUPware ELY -- through the prism of Bourdieu's field theory and Cohen's theory of Symbolic communities.
any1 interested in topics like Sociology, Social Anthropology, Contemporary Art, Ontological Anarchism, Post Soviet Cultures, Contemporary Georgian Culture,DIY Cosmonautics, Second Hand Techno, Third World.. Enjoy! and share your thought with us
main interests: consciousness, body and brain manipulations, art
ELY work: internet work. blog.esseys etc.
social network software correction with aim tobuild an independent individual spaces. (Georgia needs a lot of work in this sphere to build a factor of individuality.and to research