Antenna at the Trans Europe Halles meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia

Last October, Antena was present at the Trans Europe Halles (TEH) Camp Meeting #96 – Reboot! The meeting took place in Tbilisi, Georgia and was organized by the cultural center Fabrika. We sent 3 people from 3 different network member organisations (Stanica Žilina-Záriečie, Fabrika Umenia a T3 - kultúrny prostriedok). They participated in multiple activities of the program which were the most relevant and interesting for them.

 

Tbilisi, which is specific to its historical and political context, showed that it has pretty rich independent culture, which was also evident in the space of the Fabrika Tbilisi, where the conference was held - a former factory converted into a hostel with many gastro-pubs, design shops and studios illustrates how cultural micro-worlds can be created and thus transform the urban character of a neighbourhood. Even in the first moments after entering the courtyard of Fabrika, one feels a bit like one is in a different, subtly isolated yet freer world. This atmosphere amplified the content of the conference, with the theme REBOOT, translated as restart.

 

Not only the people we sent were present, but there was a large Slovak group of people. All of them representing centers that are also members of Antena (A4, Malý Berlín, Nová Cvernovka, Kino Úsmev, Tabačka, Wave) . The Antena members which are TEH members as well are very active in the network. A4 coordinates the Arts Education Hub, Nova Cvernovka the Sustainable Buildings Hub, and Malý Berlín is co-coordinating the East Hub. At the general assembly the full network members voted for the new Executive Committee. One of the new members of the board is Michal Klembara (Malý Berlín and chairman of Antena). 

 

Antena participated in the meeting of the Sustainable Buildings Hub coordinated by Nová Cvernovka, where we presented the project Rebuilding to Last. It is the Creative Europe project Nova Cvernovka and Antana are the partners of. We talked about the goals of the project, activities carried out so far - including the participatory architecture interventions happening during the autumn 2023 in Aarhus, Denmark and Zilina, Slovakia, and future plans of the project. At the hub meeting we shared this with the TEH hub members and had a discussion about the project with them.

 

These activities were carried out by Antena’s members and offered great networking opportunities for Slovak attendants of the meeting. Of course, as it is an international meeting, there were also many opportunities for international connections and education. A network that was present at the meeting for example and we had an opportunity to talk about the possible collaboration in the future was On the Move. They are a network mainly focused on mobilities within the cultural field. Another network we met is the Coalition of Independent cultural sector from the Republic of Moldova. They are a similar network to Antena, connecting the cultural field in Moldova. We exchanged stories, experiences and learned a lot from these exchanges with other networks.

 

For Antena and its members, the TEH meeting #96 was great. We learned many new things, we enjoyed Fabrika and Tbilisi a lot and we made many new friends from all over Europe. This offers new chances to improve within Antena and strengthen our international collaborations. 

 

The TEH membership and the attendance at the meeting were supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council.