TEKLA ASLANISHVILI
Sketched by the Rivers - Mapping the New Energy Geographies
This artistic research project is grounded in documentary film as both a modality and a methodological framework to study the fragmented spatial and temporal processes underlying the development of energy infrastructure projects in the South Caucasus region. Entry point to this examination is the joint initiative between the European Union and Georgia to construct the world’s longest high-voltage power grid beneath the Black Sea. This project will transmit renewable energy, primarily from hydro and solar power in the Caucasus and Caspian regions, to Europe. Aimed at reducing dependence on Russia for global data and energy transmission and facilitating a transition away from fossil fuels, the underwater cable is envisioned as a transformative force in reshaping current energy geographies.
The launch of this project has prompted Georgia to reposition itself as an energy hub, reviving hydroelectric projects that were halted due to local protests during and after Soviet rule. This research studies the realities that emerge in various South Caucasian villages and towns as a result of the uncertain infrastructural promise of the cable construction and, more broadly, the transnational project of a “green energy transition” (EBRD, 2016). Specific attention is given to the region of Svaneti in northwest Georgia, where the unregulated spread of crypto mining disrupts existing energy infrastructures, and planned dam projects fracture local ecological and social landscapes, revealing contested shadow realities that emerge alongside the infrastructural remaking of spaces.
This proposal builds on my interdisciplinary and collaborative body of work, including research-based experimental documentary films that explore the politics and poetics (Larkin, 2013) of constructing ports, extractive cities, and railways. Alongside current developments, it integrates historical and archival material into the cinematic timeline, examining how dams and power transmission grids in the region have been utilized and continue to function as modern technologies of citizenship and sovereignty. The research focuses on three interlinked areas: the production of cultural and scientific knowledge, the making and unmaking of political and physical borders, and practices of statecraft. These subchapters will be conveyed through a trilogy of experimental documentary shorts, complemented by an analytical text and a series of lectures.
