Opening: Saturday 28.06.2025, h 18.00 pm, Rocca di Citerna, Via della Rocca, Citerna (PG)
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Edicola dei Randagi - Shrine of the Strays is a sculptural installation composed of metal plates crafted using the traditional Georgian iconographic technique, now largely obsolete, in dialogue with the medieval architecture of Citerna. Each plate features the engraving of a stray dog—countless figures in the artist’s hometown of Tbilisi—here transformed into urban “relics.” Stray dogs, now an integral part of Tbilisi’s urban fabric, have names, stories, and form unique relationships with the residents of their neighborhoods. In this work, these small, everyday narratives are elevated to symbols, granted the same dignity as war chronicles, hagiographies, or royal biographies.
The piece highlights the tension between wildness and domesticity, between power and solidarity, restoring poetry and value to marginal stories. The technique itself becomes an act of cultural preservation: a visual and artisanal knowledge on the verge of extinction—the traditional iconographic format of Georgian Christian Orthodox visual culture—which, through the artwork, finds a new possibility of survival.
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Artwork:
01. Qeu Meparishvili, Edicola dei Randagi - Shrine of the Strays, 2025, mixed materials, variable dimensions.
Rocca di Citerna, Via della Rocca, Citerna (PG)
Citerna (PG)
28.06.2025
Rocca di Citerna, Via della Rocca
16:00
THE DEPICTION OF STRAY DOGS GOES BEYOND MERE DOCUMENTATION. ITS POETIC DIMENSION INVITES REFLECTION ON PREDATORY INSTINCTS, THE ANIMAL WITHIN THE HUMAN AND THE HUMAN WITHIN THE ANIMAL. IT BECOMES A STORY OF OPPRESSION, TOLERANCE, SHARED SPACE, AND EVEN, TO SOME EXTENT, GENDER ROLES.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ
Qeu Meparishvili (Tblisi, Georgia,1995) lives and works in Tbilisi. Her artistic practice, spanning clay sculpture and installation, is deeply influenced by her country's cultural context. Her research explores themes related to mythology, human nature, and the afterlife, translating them into symbolic and poetic forms. She studied at the Film and Theatre University and the Center of Contemporary Art, in Tbilisi. Meparishvili has participated in international artist residencies, including Salzburg Summer Academy, Salzburg (AT, 2017) and Morpho, Antwerp (BE, 2023). Her works have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including: Grey is the Cube, Blue the Ellipse, Maison de la Culture d'Amiens - MCA, Amiens (FR, 2025); A Chimera's Memorial, E. A. Shared Space, Tbilisi (GE, 2024); SIXROOMFLAT, Tbilisi (GE, 2024); Delving into Bones Liquor, Morpho, Antwerp (BE, 2023); Tsinamdzgvrishvili 49 / Mazniashvili 10, LC Queisser, Tbilisi (GE, 2023); Quiet! Someone's Singing on a Mountain…, Tbilisi (GE, 2023).
Citerna stands on a hill at 480 meters above sea level, overlooking the Upper Tiber Valley. The view that opens up before visitors is enchanting: from Sansepolcro to Città di Castello, the landscape – crossed by the Tiber River, by roads climbing the valley, and surrounded by the Apennine mountain range – reveals its unspoiled beauty. Located at the northernmost tip of Umbria, from the medieval walkways of the village the gaze embraces the entire valley and four regions: Umbria, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, and Marche.
Thanks to its strategic position, Citerna has long been a coveted stronghold. Walking through its streets, one breathes in the charm of the ancient walls and medieval architecture, immersed in the beauty of Renaissance artistic heritage. Inside its churches are preserved important works by Pomarancio, Luca Signorelli, and the only terracotta sculpture attributed to a young Donatello. Citerna is also the fourth stop along a religious and meditative route, the Cammino di San Francesco.
A land rich in history, Citerna also tells its story through the many events that enliven the village: l’Invitta, a historical reenactment of the Barberina War between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States, and the Festa della Scartocciatura, held in the hamlet of Pistrino, which celebrates the traditional art of hand-shucking corn cobs. Citerna also boasts a unique food and wine tradition, tied to vinsanto, the sweet passito wine typical of Umbria.
Many notable figures have distinguished themselves in the town’s history, including Scipione Scipioni, an army corps general born in Citerna and active between the 19th and 20th centuries, and Flora Volpini, the first woman to serve as mayor, from 1965 to 1975
Giovanni Rendina is an independent researcher and curator. During the summer of 2023, he was a visiting research fellow at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. He has curated exhibitions for Palermo Italian Capital of Culture, Art City Bologna, Live Arts Week Bologna, and Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio. In 2019, he was one of the winners of the sixth edition of the Italian Council. He earned a PhD from the University of Molise and previously completed a Master’s degree in Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts in London.
In 2024, he published the book Arte contemporanea. Un approccio radicale as part of the Eterotopie series by Mimesis.