Tbilisi Architecture Biennial was established in 2017 by Tinatin Gurgenidze, Natia Kalandarishvili, Otar Nemsadze and Gigi Shukakidze. TAB aims to bring together professionals from diverse disciplines united under one topic on a biannual basis. Policy makers, the local public and other stakeholders will present during the event, initiating and broadening the critical discourse on architectural and urban issues in Tbilisi and beyond. The TAB platform will join forces to generate exhibitions, new architectural installations, spatial experiments, symposiums and other activities related to the theme of the event. The topic, location as well as a curator will change for each event.
In November 1988 Tbilisi hosted a New Architectural Biennale. Featuring work from the USA, France, Switzerland and the rest of the Soviet Union, and a jury made up of notable international architects including Massimiliano Fuksas, the week long event was the first and only architectural biennial to be held in the Soviet Union, reflecting Tbilisi’s role as an island of relative artistic freedom within the authoritarian state, and it’s receptiveness to new ideas within a closed society. The collapse of the Soviet Union and accompanying political instability meant that the event did not continue. The 2018 Tbilisi Architecture Biennial will be the first to take place since Georgia regained its independence in 1991.
Tbilisi Architecture Biennial 2018 will explore the informality of the built and lived spaces of residential settlements in Tbilisi and beyond. Under the name “Buildings Are Not Enough” the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial will study the transformational processes and newly reinvented patterns of city dwellers. We would like to emphasize the alterations and adjustment made to architecture and the built environment that have been undertaken by inhabitants to suit their changing needs.