Tbilisi AiR is a non-profit, artist-led residency dedicated to interdisciplinary and experimental exchange within the field of art and culture. Tbilisi Air is open to artists, curators, and practitioners from all backgrounds and disciplines, united by curiosity, experimentation, and a willingness to engage with new ideas and contexts.
Based in Tbilisi, Georgia’s cultural hub, the residency draws on the city’s vibrant artistic and social networks. The city itself unfolds as a constellation of overlapping realities, constantly forming and reforming between past and present. Informal infrastructures and shifting narratives leave traces of lives, ideas, and historical moments, fragments of unfinished stories that invite attention and exploration.In this dynamic landscape, every encounter can open a new path.
Tbilisi Air hosts, supports, and collaborates with international artists who have a genuine desire to live and work in Georgia for a period of between one and three months. The program builds onto existing artistic and social contexts rather than starting from scratch. It supports curiosity, research, and dialogue between visiting and local artists, practitioners, scholars, and arts professionals across disciplines.
The program unfolds through encounters, conversations, and shared processes, generating insights and experiences for both local and visiting participants. Its open structure supports individual artistic practices while creating opportunities through a strong and evolving network. Encounters arise organically, broadening perspectives and deepening understanding.
The program balances structured support with flexible autonomy, creating conditions in which participants feel trusted, empowered, and focused on process rather than product. Connections, collaborations, and discoveries emerge organically, allowing each resident to shape their own path while contributing to the evolving life of the residency and the city.
Importance and Urgency: Tbilisi AiR operates in a context where institutional structures are fragile and frequently shaped by financial and political instability. In this landscape, each presence, connection, and contribution carries particular weight, and residents become part of the ongoing construction of the city’s cultural future.
Projects, relationships, and ideas developed during the residency are not expected to end with the stay. They are understood as seeds for ongoing collaborations, future returns, and continued research. Over time, residents’ contributions accumulate, forming a growing memory of the place that remains accessible to future residents and local communities.
Tbilisi functions both as a reflective space and as a laboratory: a city that rewards attention, invites curiosity, and leaves traces that resonate long after one has left. Tbilisi AiR is committed to continuity, knowledge transfer, and long-term impact beyond individual residency periods.
Tbilisi AiR is an artist-led residency programme founded and run by Tamuna Chabashvili. Its framework is shaped in close collaboration with Tudor Bratu, founder of Bucharest AiR, who serves as an external advisor and with the artist Mari Kalabegashvili, who contributes as a program collaborator.