The article series „Georgian Perspectives“ provides insights (via Twitter: @doinggeography) and analyses of contemporary Georgian social life from a geographical viewpoint. This means that all articles examine the social space and the practices taking place within it. This includes both the built space and the non-built space and all communications about places and spaces. It is important to underline that the insights given here must always include views from the outside, as the author is neither a native speaker nor permanently living in Georgia.
#society
Georgian Perspectives | Georgia in Europe – Constructions of the National using the Example of the Independence Day
Georgia’s way leads to Europe In the summer of 2019, the governing party Georgian Dream had promised to introduce full proportional representation for the parliamentary elections in November 2020 instead of the previous mixed system. In November 2019, however, the reform had failed in parliament. This was followed by renewed strong protests nationwide. Since the […]
#history
Georgian Perspectives | Borjomi. Water with history from Georgia
Borjomi is legendary for the mineral water of the same name, whose career began after the Caucasus War of 1864, of all times, when the Russian viceroy made Bordji his summer residence. From 1892 to 1895, the two-storey wooden palace was extended for the Russian Tsar. Photographs from the historical museum in Borjomi (Applis 2015). […]
Georgian Perspectives | Paradise lost? An architectural walk through the center of the Soviet Colchis
Russian writers have been imagining Georgia as a paradise-like country since the 19th century. The warmth, the sun, the subtropical climate – Georgia was considered a country where life was a constant feast. This image also influenced the literary texts of the 1920s and 1930s, and it continued to have an impact until the Sovietization […]
#society
Georgian Perspectives | Controversial World Culture – Conflicts over Georgia’s Architectural Heritage Using the Example of the Bagrati Cathedral in Kutaisi
Georgia has three World Heritage Sites, which are of great importance for the worldwide recognition of Georgian history and culture. However, all three sites are the subject of intense conflicts between state, religious and economic actors and UNESCO. As a result of these conflicts, another 15 sites and regions in Georgia have been on the […]
Georgian Perspectives | On Stalin in today’s Georgia
One cannot travel to Georgia without encountering evidence of a still present Stalin worship among some Georgians. Perhaps one shouldn’t write texts about Georgia without at least cautiously touching on this subject. The following statements represent my attempt to do so. I would not have dared to write about this issue without the reflections of […]
Georgian Perspectives | Fridon Nizharadze – Painter of the traumas of Svaneti and the world
The tower buildings of the village community of Ushguli in Svaneti are probably the most frequently photographed motif in Georgia. Ushguli is the longed-for destination of many visitors to Georgia. They want to see the place with their own eyes about which it is often written that it has been preserved on the edge of […]
#Tskaltubo
New perspectives for Tskaltubo? On the seemingly endless tragedy of forcefully displaced persons in Tskaltubo (Georgia)
Journal article for Caucasusedition.net | Journal for Conflict Transformation, full text available: https://caucasusedition.net/new-perspectives-for-tskaltubo/
The health resort of Tskaltubo | A look back at the spa system of the Soviet Union
Located 15 km northwest of Kutaisi, the second largest city in Georgia, Tskaltubo was one of the largest spas in the Soviet Union during the Soviet era. In the 1970s, the system of health resorts comprised „around 6000 sanatoriums, prophylactic clinics and boarding schools, in […] [which] ca. 13 million people were cared for annually; […]
The bazaar of Tskaltubo (Georgia) shows everyday life behind the facade of nostalgia for Soviet times’ architecture
Tskaltubo is located 15 km northwest of Kutaisi, Georgia’s second-largest city. The town’s history as a spa resort in the Soviet period has given it a repository of tourist experience to fall back on. An ongoing complication in this development arises from the occupation of the now-decaying Soviet-era sanatoria by internally displaced Georgians fleeing the […]
#architecture
Georgian Perspectives | Georgia could lose its world heritage site in Svaneti
Svaneti is one of the most sought-after tourist destinations within Georgia and is best known for the village community of Ushguli, one of the highest situated permanently populated places in Europe. It is the architecture that fascinates visitors from all over the world to the most photographed spot in Georgia. Due to the Georgian state’s […]
Georgian Perspectives | Tbilisi – Archive of Transition
Collecting narratives of change in Georgia In a way, the Georgian capital wakes up every morning with a new face. Ambitious construction projects and major foreign investments are continuously changing the cityscape of Tbilisi. Among residents, this unstoppable development leads to an ongoing debate: What should be preserved and what should be allowed to undergo […]
Georgian Perspectives | On the problem of giving ideological artwork a voice – Mosaics of Soviet Modernity (Georgia)
No matter how bad the Soviet system was, it’s part of our past. A destruction of the related forms and images cannot and will not erase it. Nini Palavandishvili: Soviet Modernist Architecture 2019, p. 12 The article series „Georgian Perspectives“ provides insights and analyses of contemporary Georgian social life from a geographical viewpoint. This means […]
Georgian Perspectives | The „Green Bazaar“ of Kutaisi (Georgia, Imereti)
The „Green Bazaar“ is located in the centre of Kutaisi. It is the main supply centre for the population living in the city and the surrounding area. At the same time, it is an excellent example of the high esteem in the Georgian culture for the value of food and drink. Despite the simplicity of […]
Georgian Perspectives | Photographs of selected traces of history in the urban space of Kutaisi (Georgia, Imereti)
The path through a city leads deep into the present and past of the people living there. By discovering objects und spaces, one can learn much about what is constitutive for peoples’ lives. „Expose the objects, recover them, make them speak – that is the path of archaeology proposed here. (…) The world is viewed […]
Geographien | doing geography 