Participating artists: Atu Gelovani, Lasha Kabanashvili, Aleksander Komarov, Lado Lomitashvili, Magdalena Pięta, Nino Sekhniashvili, Tatia Skhirtladze and Naili Vakhania
Chess program: Uli Huemer
"Chess palace" may sound unusual in the Western European context. However, it was a common idea in the Soviet Union, where chess was widely played in its pioneer palaces, cultural houses and workers' clubs. In a few years after the October Revolution, the young Soviet Union managed to turn a "useless game of the bourgeoisie" into a sensible pastime of the working masses. After the Second World War Soviet domination in chess became an important ideological argument for the superiority of the system. In the 1970s the special palaces were created for chess - not in the centre though, but in the peripheral Soviet republics of Georgia, Armenia and Belarus. These buildings are distinguished by their striking architecture, sophisticated design and intelligent placement into the urban environment.
The exhibition Pop-Up Chess Palace focuses on Tbilisi Chess Palace and Alpine Club - architecturally the most demanding and ambitious one among these palaces. The curators of the exhibition question how to generally deal with the unique features of the modernist socialist architecture and how the ideal content of these buildings can be lived today.
The exhibition is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia in the frame of German-Georgian Friendship Year 2017 program.
Photos by David Meskhi
More: geoair.ge/8x8 future neve -happened
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