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3 | Luisa
The work is motivated by the aim to create clothes as vivid things of their own. I put attentiveness on how a volume is created from a flat surface and how it creates a wrapping or a case for the human body. The focus lays on the interaction of the garment with the individual human body.

1 | Manana
“Free play”, is a project that considers transformation of our understanding of space and the common narratives they relate to, given the impact of Covid-19 globally. Play by definition is associated with joy, sometimes concealing the practical purpose and behavioral dimensions it shapes. While playing, we create connections and rules for games.

2 | Manana
Free Play references Japanese/American architect Isamu Noguchi’s philosophies of Non-Directive play, where shape is instrumentalized to encourage users to create and shape their own shared experiences as well as the vernacular architecture that characterized Georgia known as Kamikaze Loggia.

5 | Manana
For me it was a start of self-proposed narratives and game rules, hoarding objects from different parts, creating unstable structures-I would say a bit like Tetris game-everything could fall apart instantly. At the same time, one person building structures out of the building, created a rule and a possibility for another person to make their move/structures with added up rules, therefore the building became alive, rhizomes, hybrids.

2 | Luisa
I am trying fold up cases or volumes from a flat, using woven slits or double layers. I end up with rectangular shaped clothes, trying to get as close as possible to the human body but still providing enough space to move around freely when wearing them. The way of working is also inspired by historical and cultural references.

1 | Luisa
Within my work I am experimenting and learning how to weave clothes directly on the loom. Weaving clothes combines two different creative fields: On the one hand the experimental pattern making and on the other hand the weaving. The pattern construction of the clothes is guided by the weaving, which results in an own way of form-finding.

3 | Manana
Georgian society is well known for common spaces and shared activities. However, the political philosophy of USSR has shaped the social function of the architectural forms, creating an identical and disenchanted landscape with rows of residential apartments closed off from each other. The slick concrete buildings, Krushovkas, left by the Soviet Era, did not always consider space for interaction or the exchange and co-creation of common narratives. Before the 1990’s buildings didn’t facilitate endless possibilities for interaction and moving through common space.

4 | Manana
After the 1990’s this common narrative shifted from concrete residential blocks to external structures in the form of Kamikaze Loggia. This self-directed phenomenon gave citizens the possibility to express themselves and interact with the concept of common spaces in a more experimental fashion, but at the same time highlighting the difficulty in engineering connections between themselves or other parts of the building.

5 | Luisa
The non-present way of sharing the room with Manana Kobakhidze provided me with a lot of input (colors, shapes, thoughts and ways of working). As well it created a good feeling of collaboration and togetherness which I feel is a precious and important thing during the current pandemic.

4 | Luisa
I created a collection of seven different garments: A coat, jacket, dress, shirt, blouse, pants and skirt. As well I was weaving two different, long try-out pieces that look like colorful striped scarfs. I was focussing on the possibilities of bindings and weft yarns in order to create a wide range of different qualities based on the same warp.

1 | Aria & Victor
From the beginning of October 2020, Circa 106 has begun to shift it’s spatial character and transform into a working space, where two artists have practiced in an asynchronous dialogue through various forms of communication. It has been inspiring to see how amidst the restrictive measures and hindering circumstances, both artists Manana and Luisa formed and informed each other’s processes and engaged in a consistent flow of collaboration spread in the time span of one month. It is even more exciting to know that sharing this amount of time and space has opened up a continuation of working-together after finishing the residency.

2 | Aria & Victor
Despite the very different medium that Manana and Luisa are employing, they are both approaching their topics in a similar way on the semantic and pragmatic level. If Luisa is using the folding to generate geometrical shapes which can accommodate the human body, in Manana’s architectural intervention there is a curious folding outwards that expands the defined territory of the building and suggests an alternate residential and interactive practice. Conceptually they are both keen to propose a playful setting, a playground, in which the user can become an active participant and acquire the agency to contribute and hopefully even challenge or subvert the game.

The process gave us a glimpse on how setting the basis for alternative methods of collaborations can spark further thoughts on artistic practices and a much needed space for human connection. The following is a glimpse not only to the final result, but the dynamic process of exchange and dialogue.