Saz festival in Tbilisi just before Europalia in Belgium @ Onnik James Krikorian 2023
Earlier this month Georgia was the theme of the Europalia biennial in Belgium. With a rich history of art, culture, dance, and music of its own, it was therefore encouraging to see that one of the performers from the country was the ethnic Azerbaijani Ashiq Nargile. This was a welcome inclusion of a representative of Georgia’s largest ethnic minority in the programme.
With ethnic Armenians making up the second largest, such a development bodes well for the country if it receives EU member candidate status next month. Below an excerpt from my recent piece for The Caspian Post with more photos from a related Saz festival in Tbilisi held weeks before. It too featured Ashiq Nargile.
This year’s Europalia, a multidisciplinary international arts and cultural biennial established in Belgium in 1969, has become a showcase for intercultural dialogue on the European continent. For four months, from October to January, the event is intended to feature the best of traditional and contemporary art, crafts, dance, literature, music, and theatre from a specific country chosen every two years.
At first intended to showcase solely European culture, in 1989, it selected Japan as the thematic country that year. China, Brazil, India, and Türkiye followed for festivals between 2009 to 2017, and this year was the turn of Georgia. Decided before the 8 November recommendation to grant the country European Union membership candidate status, the timing is appropriate even if coincidental.
The festival will allow audiences the possibility to immerse themselves in Georgia’s rich and diverse cultural heritage. It will feature exhibitions such as The Avant-Garde in Georgia 1900-1936 and personal exhibitions by modern Georgian artists, multidisciplinary performances, traditional and modern electronic music, theatrical performances, literary meetings, and a retrospective on Georgian cinema.
[…]
The ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani communities are Georgia’s largest minorities in the country, but inclusion in local and international events has been rare or even non-existent. That could be changing, however. In mid-October, the State Folklore Center of Georgia also staged an entire evening in Tbilisi dedicated to the Ashiq and Mugham traditions supported by the Georgian government.
[…]
“This Georgian-Azerbaijani traditional music evening holds particular significance as this musical tradition remains largely unfamiliar to a broader audience,” Folklife Georgia wrote on its Facebook page. Certainly, assuming that it receives its candidate status next month, minority inclusion will be an important requirement for Georgia’s possible long path toward eventual EU membership.
The full article is here.
Saz festival in Tbilisi just before Europalia in Belgium @ Onnik James Krikorian 2023
