LOVE THY MONSTERS
Tbilisi Architecture Biennial Furniture Workshop
‘Love Thy Monsters’ is an exhibition of site-specific furniture that raises awareness around the illegal dumping of construction waste in Dighomi Meadows, one of the last remaining riparian forests in the region of Tbilisi, Georgia.
In association with the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial (TAB), the furniture components are the kickstarter to a larger project aimed at transforming a derelict power station into an active community space. While the ‘Love Thy Monsters’ address the harm of societal waste, it also points to the opportunities possible in more circular thinking in the design and construction industry.
The MAAK and Space Saloon, as part of their collaborative LINA fellowship, led a group of local creatives and artisans through hands-on prototyping using found materials from Dighomi Meadows. Each custom-made piece tells a particular story on the long-term environmental damage to the area. Lighting fixtures, shelving units and tables of various sizes - exhibited alongside audio recordings, block prints and physical samples from the site - bring focus to their material roots.
OPENING EVENT
At the end of the weeklong making process, the furniture pieces launched the soft opening of Mutant Radio’s new ‘listening bar’ and cafe. Both in-person, and through live on-air broadcasts, broad awareness was brought to the Dighomi Meadows industrial tragedy. By inspiring new worth to what we waste (as well as provoking change in our industry), the project brings into question the role and agency of materials in creative practices.
TEAM