Over a four-day period, beginning with a Café Europa event in Tbilisi with poets and writers, 20 participants from eight different countries then shared their personal experiences and dilemmas. These sessions offered an opportunity to step outside of any constricting parameters of one’s usual professional life. Together they considered how they might work in a new cross-disciplinary way in order to address the significant contemporary issues and problems of today.
What are the dilemmas of the modern world that must be confronted? For participants these included:
the increasing polarisation of society; the influence and reach of violent ideologies; ethnic and racial hatred; the global shift away from democratic aspirations/solutions; the impact of war; the restriction of culture/freedom of expression; failings of education curriculums; loss of respect for others; fracturing of communities; distortion of communal values; the use of media as propaganda; destabilisation of civil society initiatives.
Nika and Diana Vacheishvila hosted the group in the village of Ateni in the Tang River Valley, in the heart of Georgian Kartli. Both have worked in the cultural sector for many years in Georgia, and are now devoted to developing a marani and guest house, restoring viniculture and cultural heritage in Ateni valley. At the conclusion of the sessions, participants agreed to explore the opportunity to host further mobile academies of dialogue in both Transcarpathia and Armenia in 2024.
Participants were:
Krzysztof Czyżewski (Poland), Hanna Yankuta (Belarus), Lusine Kharatyan (Armenia), Armen Ohanyan (Armenia), Dmytro Tuzhanskyi (Ukraine), Krzysztof Meissner (Poland), Magda Nowakowska (Georgia), Przemysław Czapliński (Poland), Andriy Lyubka (Ukraine), Ondrej Liska (Czech Republic), Viktoras Bachmetjevas (Lithuania), Raphael Rogiński (Poland), Archil Kikodze (Georgia), Natia Kalandarishvili (Georgia), Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz (Poland), Keti Kantaria (Georgia), Medea Metreveli (Georgia). Rapporteur: Brendan Jackson (UK)
