MAKZIA / მაქცია

GEORGIAN POLITICAL & CULTURAL FESTIVAL

• Background -

July 5, 2021 is considered a defining turning point in the recent history of Georgia. In connection with the planned Tbilisi Pride, massive violent attacks took place in Tbilisi against journalists, activists, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. As a result, numerous people were injured, offices of NGOs and activist groups were attacked, and the planned „March For Dignity” event had to be canceled for security reasons.

The events triggered international criticism and led to broad public debates about democracy, human rights, media freedom, and increasing social polarization in Georgia. For many people, July 5 became a symbolic date representing violence, resistance, visibility, and collective memory.

• Festival Identity -

As a collective and cultural response, the festival is named after “Makzia” (მაქცია), a mythological figure from Georgian folklore.

Makzia is a liminal being existing in a state of transition: between human and animal, culture and nature, instinct and consciousness. The figure represents transformation, instability, hybridity, and movement between identities and realities. Within the context of the festival, Makzia becomes a metaphor for societies and individuals moving between political pressure, resistance, migration, and social change. It embodies a continuous state of becoming.

• Vision -

MAKZIA is an interdisciplinary cultural festival that engages with current social and political realities. It creates a space for solidarity, exchange, visibility, and collective presence.

Rooted in community and neighborhood culture, the project brings together artists, activists, musicians, collectives, and visitors from different backgrounds by fostering encounter, exchange, and active participation. The vision of the festival is to raise awareness of current social and political realities in Georgia and to build connections to international struggles surrounding democracy, queer visibility, freedom of expression, and social justice.

• Artistic and Cultural Approach -

Culture forms the shared language of the festival.

Through music, art, performance, film, workshops, and discussions, MAKZIA presents perspectives on a contemporary Georgia shaped simultaneously by tradition, transformation, migration, resistance, and global exchange.

Creative forms of expression are understood as tools to question dominant structures, make memory visible, and open new social perspectives.

• Queer Perspectives -

Queer perspectives stand at the center of the festival.

MAKZIA creates visibility for queer voices and experiences from Georgia, Berlin, and across the world. Deconstructing the notion of queerness as an isolated or taboo topic, the festival understands (or: positions/approaches) it as an essential perspective within broader social questions surrounding identity, belonging, and visibility.

Like Makzia itself, the festival moves beyond binaries, social norms and fixed notions of otherness.

• Hospitality and Community -

Georgian hospitality fundamentally shapes the atmosphere of the festival. Traditional cuisine, wine, and chacha function not only as cultural elements, but as social practices that create openness, accessibility, warmth, and community.

Special focus is placed on community participation and collaboration with local initiatives, artists, and neighborhood-based structures.

At its core, the festival is imagined as an organic platform for connection and empowerment. It is a space that carries memory, encourages dialogue and inspires collective action.