NETWORK: Tbilisi Architecture Network (tbilisiarchitecture.net)

(tbilisiarchitecture.net) This is an open network for architects, art and architectural historians, urban and landscape planers, designers, philosophers, mathematicians, engineers, artists and journalists, individuals and organizations, professionals and other Tbilisi lovers. It is here to explore, evaluate and influence the development of architecture in Tbilisi and Georgia. The Network aims to provoke discussion, to publicize architectural critics, to encourage the preservation of our architectural heritage, to evaluate strategies to influence the development of our urban and natural environment. The current website was launched by ArchForumTbilisi, designed and programmed in Zürich, Switzerland.

The website is bilingual – Georgian and English and is divided into two parts: TbilisiView and C.A.S.E. STUDIES 1.TbilisiView is dedicated mainly to preservation of urban and architectural heritage.

It contains four sections, each with a corresponding icon on the Tbilisi map: Hotspots – highlights current unsolved problems and projects dealing with cultural heritage, historic fabric, listed buildings etc.
We Like – shows good projects of restoration, adaptation, conservation and new development that respects the existing built environment.
Red List – flags significant historic urban areas, landscapes and buildings at risk that should be saved. Lost – documents cultural heritage that is neglected and left to ruin; that has already been demolished or is now irrevocably damaged.
We invite professionals to share their photos and stories of the city architecture; to join our network and help it evolve.

2. C.A.S.E. STUDIES is an online magazine dedicated to:
C.-city,
A.- architecture,
S.- society
E.- environment
None are exclusive to Tbilisi or Georgia.

We welcome submissions for publication from architects of recent projects in Tbilisi and Georgia, architectural critics, news from architecture and all connected issues. Authors, photographers, translators and members of this network who contribute will be listed here. Their names are linked to related articles on this website. Occasionally images may appear uncredited. If you see your image, please contact us – info@tbilisiarchitecture.net

Tbilisi Forum for Architecture
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Network are here: tbilisiarchitecture.net/network with:
Nino Tchatchkhiani, Maia Mania, Rusudan Margishvili, Elisso Sulakauri, Thomas Krayer, Tsira Elisashvili, Ketevan Khimshiashvili, Nino Gabunia

OPEN-DEMOCRACY: Just Pubished About The Region. (opendemocracy.net)

Russia and the Georgia war: the great-power trap, Ivan Krastev
Europe has entered the new 19th century. The Russia-Georgia war of 8-12 August 2008 has acted as a time-machine, vaporising the "end of history" sentiment that shaped European politics in the 1990s and replacing it with an older geopolitical calculus in modern form.
An older calculus - but not a cold-war one. Indeed, though the conflict over South Ossetia has generated heady rhetoric of the cold-war's return, the real constellation of power and ideology it has revealed is...
more »

Abkhazia and South Ossetia: heart of conflict, key to solution , George Hewitt
On the second full day of the Georgia-Russia war of 8-12 August 2008, Russian patrol-boats operating off the Black Sea shore of Abkhazia sank four Georgian vessels apparently intent on landing in the territory. The identity of these vessels is not yet clear, but it is interesting to note that a published list of military equipment in the possession of the Georgian government - equipment largely supplied over many years by Tbilisi's western friends - includes a ship called the General...
more »

After the war: recognising reality , Neal Ascherson
The Russian soldiers are not the worst. They have won their victory, and now hang about Georgia mopping up. Much more terrible are the civilians and volunteers who come behind the soldiers, the big-bellied men with guns, knives and army jackets thrown over their T-shirts. They are doing the murdering, the looting and burning, the "cleansing" as they drive the last Georgians out of South Ossetia. The flight of the Georgian army has let them into Georgian territory as far as Gori, so...
more »

South Ossetia: children of war, Peter Nasmyth
Among the many words and voices emerging from this conflict there are very few, if any, coming from those who experience it the most keenly - the region's children.
These paintings were created by children in South Ossetia during late 2006 and 2007 and also ten years earlier, while the memories of the previous battle for Tskhinvali (1991-2) were still strong in their minds. The children are both Georgian and Ossetian, some living in Tskhinvali, some in Atchabeti (a Georgian village...
more »

Citizen war-journo? A Caucasus test , Evgeny Morozov
To watch Russian leaders and media make the public case for war with Georgia when the conflict was still in its infancy was also to wonder why at that point there was still so little factual evidence - particularly photos and videos - from observers on the ground in South Ossetia's capital, Tshkinvali. The Kremlin's spokespersons wanted the world to believe that the city had just suffered a Stalingrad-like devastation - though there was as yet no visible proof of the thousands of...
more »

The Georgia-Russia conflict: lost territory, found nation, Donald Rayfield
The embers of the five-day war between Georgia and Russia of 8-12 August 2008 are not quite extinguished, but the ceasefire agreement skilfully negotiated by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and agreed with his counterparts Dmitri Medvedev (Russia) and Mikheil Saakashvili (Georgia) gives hope for an end to this intense, destructive and tragic conflict.
Donald Rayfield is emeritus professor of the school of modern languages, Queen Mary University of London. Among his books is Stalin...
more »

openDemocracy.net/Russia reports, debates and blogs the Georgia war

EXHIBITION: '20 years of Tbilisi' Photographs by Peter Nasmyth

26th January - 23rd February 2008

This extraordinary collection of photographs, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Bristol's twinning with Tbilisi, Georgia marks the dramatic change in the cities life from Communism to Capitalism. Georgia itself Lies South of Russia bordered by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. This exhibition will enlighten its visitors with views of the dramatic countryside and intriguing architecture.

Grand Bradley Gallery >>>

Peter Nasmith talk & exhibition NKA

Following Peter Nasmyth's very successful talk given at University Wales Newport last night.

Anyone who was unable to come and hear him might like to take up this second opportunity to do so

Derek Butler is organising a date for a group visit to Peter's exhibition, date yet to be decided.

Do contact him if you are interested in joining up derekrbutler@tiscali.co.uk

Regards, Catherine, Chair NKA

PETER NASMYTH is giving a lunch time talk on SAT 23RD FEBRUARY 2008 at the gallery on 20 Years of Tbilisi and his collection of mountain photographs.

Entry £2.00

Contact Gallery for further details

on http://www.grantbradleygallery.co.uk/contact/index.html

TRAVEL: Walking in Georgia - An illustrated talk by Peter Nasmyth

at University of Wales Newport

The Conferenc Suite
Caerleon Campus

07.00 - 09.00 pm

5. February 2008

Peter Nasmyth is an outstanding photographer who has made Georgia his home. Peter has an unrivalled knowledge of one of the most beautiful and widely unknown nations in Europe.

Newport Kutaisi Association

BOOKS: Three books on the Caucasus from St. Martin's Press.

Robert Chenciner Daghestan: Tradition and Survival (1997; $49.95)
B. G. Hewitt, ed. The Abkhazians: A Handbook (1998; $45.00)
Peter Nasmyth Georgia: In the Mountains of Poetry (1998; $45.00)

reviewed by Kevin Tuite, Université de Montréal
to appear in the Annual of the Society for the Study of the Caucasus

The Caucasus, after a long exile on the peripheries of Western scholarly and public attention, is beginning to draw the interest it deserves. Much of the current focus on the region, to be sure, is the result of misfortune — war, ethnic conflicts, political instability — and may well diminish as circumstances improve. At the same time, a handful of foreign scholars and writers have taken a less ephemeral interest in the peoples and cultures of the Caucasus, and the fruits of their inquiries are beginning to appear in print: whence the three books under review, published by St. Martin's Press in the last couple of years. All three volumes are handsomely bound, printed on thick paper, and contain numerous photographs. The similarities end there, however …

Full Text: http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/tuitekj/caucasus/StMartinRev.htm

BOOKS: Two New Books Examine the Georgia Factor

By Thomas de Waal

Thomas de Waal wrote about two important books. The writers and journalists Peter Nasmyth and Thomas Goltz are the authors of books about the georgian people in the secret caucasian mountains:

"So what is the Georgians’ secret? They have produced some great theatrical and film directors, and their capacity for grand gesture must have something to do with it. In a gray bureaucratic world, the Georgians give us dash and spectacle. [...]

The deeper reason for this kind of interest lies in the Soviet past, in Georgia’s special place within the Soviet Union and in the double strand of Georgian history that has tied it to both Russia and Europe. All kinds of Russians find it harder emotionally to let go of Georgia than, say, Kazakhstan or Moldova. The interpenetration of Russian and Georgian culture, combined with the memory of Georgia as a beloved childhood vacation destination, leads them to unthinkingly assume that Georgia is part of “their” space — and that an independent Georgia that wants to embrace the West is guilty of some kind of disloyalty. This in turn only drives the Georgians’ fiercest nationalism, bolstering the response that they have an ancient culture and a Christian tradition that predate Russia’s, and strong ties with Europe that bypass Russia.

And, of course, looming over all this is Josef Stalin, the world’s most famous Georgian, still interred in Red Square. His legacy has formed and deformed both countries in myriad ways. You could write a whole Ph.D. thesis unraveling the subtexts that underlie Putin’s deliberately needling remark comparing the Georgian government’s detention of alleged Russian spies in Tbilisi to the behavior of Stalin’s security boss Lavrenty Beria. A Russian leader and ex-KGB veteran accusing the pro-Western nationalist leader of Georgia of being Beria’s heir? Who is the pot here and who is the kettle, the Georgians asked with some justification. Yet the truth is that, whether they like it or not, both Putin and Saakashvili live in the shadow of Stalin, shaped by all the assumptions he gave them about the uses of power.
Stalin inevitably makes an appearance in both of these fascinating books on Georgia. Peter Nasmyth is made to drink to Stalin, “the great general,” during an alcohol-soaked trip to the mountains of Svaneti. Thomas Goltz tracks the influence of Stalin and Beria in his thrilling reporter’s account of good times and bad in post-Soviet Georgia.
Both of these authors know and love the place well. The danger — one that neither avoids — is that the story turns into one of those over-long Caucasian feasts, in which you are offered far too much to eat, the digressions get ever lengthier and you begin to forget where you started. A bit more Anglo-Saxon editing would have helped. Nasmyth, a professional Georgiaphile, co-founded the indispensable English-language bookshop Prospero’s Books in Tbilisi and has also written a walking guide to the mountains. The first edition of “Georgia: In the Mountains of Poetry” dates back to 1998, and this new edition brings it up to date with material that covers the Rose Revolution and its aftermath. [...]

Goltz’s “Georgia Diary” is a different proposition altogether, being the third installment in a (initially unintended) trilogy, following “Azerbaijan Diary” and “Chechnya Diary.” Fans and detractors will already know what is in store for them: a racy, ground-level account of our reporter’s battle with the chaos of the post-Soviet Caucasus and of its unfortunate citizens made victims of geopolitical battles. The same caveats apply in that the background information is not always well-sourced nor the spellings correct, but Goltz’s journey is well worth the ride. Goltz wears his heart on his sleeve, never shirks the most dangerous assignment and can rival any drink-hardened Caucasian glass for glass. In a recurring subplot, he is frequently at war with foreign editors who can’t find the Caucasus on the map, have commissioned something else from Moscow or have filled their week’s quota of war coverage from the Balkans. [...]

Goltz says that he first encountered Georgia in Bertolt Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” and the most moving and mysterious character in his book is also the most Brechtian.

While in Sukhumi, Goltz got to know a Georgian woman named Nunu Chachua, the commercial director of a theater and also a fanatical Zviadist, or in other words, a supporter of Georgia’s nationalist and fiercely anti-Russian first president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia. She was, Goltz tells us, “Medea, a raven-haired beauty with dark almonds for eyes, who was tough as nails, and possessed an absolutism that was both splendid and frightening.”
Chachua’s story takes us through the whole tragic arc of Georgia’s recent history. We meet her shortly after Gamsakhurdia is deposed in 1992; then again as war starts in Abkhazia, with her house on the front lines of the battle for Sukhumi; and then when she is in exile in Tbilisi, doing business deals and drawing refugee benefits while pouring scorn on the “so-called Rose Revolution.” Goltz does not iron out her contradictions, and yet we admire her fortitude. In short, she is a very Georgian character and the kind of person with whom the professional policy strategists in Moscow or Washington have failed to come to terms. Perhaps it is the glorious devil-may-care attitude of people like Chachua that continues to draw us to Georgia — in 2007 we long for places where chivalry still has value, even if the price the Georgians pay for it has been far too high."

Thomas de Waal is Caucasus editor for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London.

full text: http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=20137

BOOK: Vagabond Life The Caucasus. Journals of George Kennan

George Kennan

Edited, with an Introduction and Afterword, by Frith Maier, with Contributions by Daniel C. Waugh

"I traveled through the Caucasus like a perfect vagabond, [one who] seeks to know the world and its people as they are and, in order to acquire that knowledge, is ready to become all things with all men and to make himself equally at home in all places. In this sense of the word I do not hesitate to avow myself a vagabond of the most pronounced type."George Kennan (1845 - 1924) was a pioneering explorer, writer, and lecturer on Russia in the nineteenth century, the author of classic works such as Tent Life in Siberia and Siberia and the Exile System, and great-uncle of George Frost Kennan, the noted historian and diplomat of the Cold War.In 1870, Kennan became the first American to explore the highlands of Dagestan, a remote Muslim region of herders, silversmiths, carpet-weavers, and other craftsmen southeast of Chechnya, only a decade after Russia violently absorbed the region into its empire. He kept detailed journals of his adventures, which today form a small part of his voluminous archive in the Library of Congress. Frith Maier has combined the diaries with selected letters and Kennan's published articles on the Caucasus to create a vivid narrative of his six-month odyssey.The journals have been organized into three parts. The first covers Kennan's journey to the Caucasus, a significant feat in itself. The second chronicles his expedition across the main Caucasus Ridge with the Georgian nobleman Prince Jorjadze. In the final part, Kennan circles back through the lands of Chechnya to slip once again into the Dagestan highlands.Kennan's remarkable curiosity and perception come through in this lively and accessible narrative, as does his humor at the challenges of his travels.In her Introduction, Maier discusses Kennan's illustrious career and his reliability as an observer, while providing background on the Caucasus to help clarify Kennan's descriptions of daily life, religion, etiquette, customary law, and local government. In an Afterword, she retraces Kennan's steps to find descendants of Prince Jorjadze and describes her work in coproducing, with filmmaker Christopher Allingham, a documentary inspired by Kennan's Caucasus journey.Frith Maier shares Kennan's adventurous spirit; she became interested in his writings as a student of Russia and went on to a career in adventure travel herself. She is the author of Trekking in Russia and Central Asia: A Travelers Guide. She lives in Seattle. Additional contributions have been provided by Daniel C. Waugh, professor of history and international studies at the University of Washington.

Reviews:
"These transcribed journals of a journey from Daghestan to Georgia to Russia have preserved a number of priceless snapshots of communities and customs now disappeared. . . . This is an impressively researched and intelligent book. . ." - Peter Nasmyth, Times Literary Supplement

Source: University of Washington Press

another important link: Homage to an Adventurer

When George Kennan trekked through the remote Caucasus Mountains in 1870, recording his observations in a series of journals, he could not have imagined that a young American woman would retrace his steps more than 120 years later.

But Frith Maier, an adventurer in her own right, seemed destined to make the journey...

BOOK: Walking in The Caucasus - Georgia. By Peter Nasmyth

Remarkably, Georgia - no larger than Switzerland - ranks in the world's top twelve countries for geographical diversity. It contains the heart of the Caucasus mountains - larger and more dramatic than the Alps - subtropical wetlands, a Black Sea coast, semi-desert, all peppered with ancient stone towers and an exceptional history. But this walker's paradise remains virtually undiscovered. Peter Nasmyth has now provided the first comprehensive walker's guide, including birds, flora and fauna, to Europe's most diverse landscape. The book contains clear directions, excellent maps, GPS references, local history/contacts and a superb selection of colour photographs.

See also: Presentation Of Walking In The Caucasus

BOOK: Presentation Of Walking In The Caucasus-Georgia Book Held

April 19, 2006, 7:08 pm (http://eng.primenewsonline.com/?c=123&a=7628)

In Georgia Embassy To UK

Tbilisi. April 19 (Prime-News) – Presentation of Walking in the Caucasus-Georgia by Peter Nasmyth was held in the Georgian Embassy to the UK under the aegis of the Embassy and the Georgian British Society on April 18th.
Peter Nasmyth has been engaged in research of history of Georgian culture for eighteen years ... more >>>

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Georgia; In the Mountains of Poetry (Caucasus World S.) (Paperback)

by PETER NASMYTH

"All voyages are searches in disguise, and this one to the nation of Georgia has turned out as no exception..." (more)

Explore: Citations Concordance Text Stats SIPs CAPs Browse: Front Cover Copyright Table of Contents Excerpt Index Back Cover Surprise Me!

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly

An enthusiast for his subject, Nasmyth discovers Georgia precisely at the moment of the tiny democratic republic's post-Soviet reawakening. Notable for its hospitality, its wines, its intellectual tradition and a remarkable ability to preserve its national identity under successive occupations, Georgia appeals wildly to the senses even while its people face immense political and economic challenges. Nasmyth shows how this early Christian kingdom, once nestled between the Russian, Turkish and Persian empires, casts a spell over all those who visit. As he portrays Georgia's regions with descriptions of landscape and customs, Nasmyth also refers to a rich tradition of epic and religious writing and storytelling. While the interviews with people he encounters capture a portrait of Georgia in transition, there is a disappointing reliance on obvious metaphors to reflect the death of the Soviet order: rust, rickety buses, decrepit buildings and prostitution. Likewise, Nasmyth's digressions into the meaning of Soviet history and his occasional personal revelations are superficial and distract from an otherwise strong exercise in observation. Certain reminiscences are rewarding, however: wandering the twisting streets of Tbilisi, or imbibing a cold drink from a sacred pool in ancient cave dwellings. The author's occasional failure to provide profound commentary makes Georgia no less attractive as a destination. 170 b&w photos and illustrations.
Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

"All voyages are searches in disguise," says Nasmyth as he opens this disquisition on his travels through the former Soviet republic of GeorgiaAand at first readers may find this too annoyingly true. Nasmyth concedes that he's partly searching for himself here, and we hear rather too much about him as he weaves together impressions from his travels with the history of the country. But at least he's honest enough to admit it, and readers will learn a lot about Georgia from reading his book, though it's not really a comprehensive cultural and historical introduction, as it's billed. Rather, it is one slightly pushy but still pretty keen-eyed reporter's account of how the country opened up to him, with a somewhat stronger (and certainly welcome) focus on the arts than one typically finds in books of this sort. Nasmyth has been reporting on the Caucasus for 11 years (he currently runs a charity for children in the area), and though more of this material dates from early in his travels than one might like, he does vividly show us a society in flux. Recommended where Soviet/Russian studies, cultural studies, and unusual travelogs are popular.ABarbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"

Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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First Sentence:

All voyages are searches in disguise, and this one to the nation of Georgia has turned out as no exception.

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Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more) panther skin
Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more) Rustaveli Avenue, Black Sea, Government Building, Soviet Union, Queen Tamar, Red Army, Greater Caucasus, David Gareja, High Caucasus, Ilia Chavchavadze, Special Forces, Communist Party, David the Builder, Upper Svaneti, Art Museum, National Guard, Robert Sturua, Vazha Pshavela, World War, Art Nouveau, City of the Dead, Deda Teodora, Dynamo Tbilisi, Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgian Military Highway
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Front Cover Copyright Table of Contents Excerpt Index Back Cover Surprise Me!