By Liza Tsitsishvili I’m going to introduce you to a young woman, Georgian film director Anuna Bukia, who had to leave her home with her parents in the 90s, during the conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia. She has been living in Tbilisi, far away from her home, for over 30 years now. What kind of city is Tbilisi for you? Anuna: It’s probably a rare city, the kind you can’t explain in one word.  Two things come to my mind – multiethnic and unending. Tbilisi is a quiet unity of many different people. In my opinion, the whole idea of the city is the warm energy concentrated in its older parts.…

One of my favorite things to do is get lost in any city and find street art somewhere off the beaten path. While wandering through Tbilisi, I realized that I was particularly drawn to the works of TAm OOnz. I had no idea who she was, but I sensed that the artist was a woman. After getting back home, I kept going through my photos, looked up Tam’s name, and found her Facebook page. I sent her a message, and she responded. Coming up with questions for someone like TAm, who simply exudes power and creativity, was not easy. I deeply appreciate her punctuality and the time she put into…

By Liza Tsitsishvili I had the great pleasure of sitting down for an interview with Eka Mazmishvili, the director of the Tbilisi International Theatre Festival and the Kote Marjanishvili Theatre. Eka graduated from the Faculty of History and Theory of Art at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. She later received her PhD in Arts and Cultural Management from the Academy of Management and Arts in Grenoble, France. Since 2006, Eka has managed the Kote Marjanishvili Theatre in Tbilisi, and since 2009 she has served as the director of the Tbilisi International Theatre Festival. She has also lectured on Practices of Cultural Management and the Arts at Tbilisi State University and…

The story of Amiran Shalikashvili’s Pantomime Theatre turned out to be far more interesting than I had anticipated, and unexpectedly sad. We spoke about many things: pantomime as a way of life, the current state of the theatre and plans for its modernization, his father’s legacy, and the future of Georgian pantomime. What was your first time on stage like? What was the theatre like back then? Amiran Shalikashvili Jr.:I started when I was thirteen, and I’ve been doing this ever since. It was the 1990s, and honestly, I entered the theatre by accident. After 1992, the entire country was in chaos, and the theatre was no exception. In 1996,…