Tbilisi park sculpture to be unveiled as city’s recognition of stray dogs

A sculpture dedicated to stray dogs will be unveiled  in downtown Tbilisi’s Vaso Godziashvili garden on Sunday as a recognition of animals in the city. 

Created by Georgian artist Gela Patiashvili, whose work features themes of animals and, in particular, dogs, the work was produced within a contest of Tbilisi city hall’s Creative Tbilisi Programme.

The programme aims to promote the development of the creative industry in the capital by enabling artists to bring their ideas to fruition.

Patiashvili told agenda.ge the sculpture was his tribute to dogs and a message for tolerant attitudes towards stray animals in cities.

In addition to the fact that I have a very positive attitude towards this animal, with this piece of art I wanted to say that stray dogs are also part of our lives, and the public should try to be more tolerant towards them. We should not consider stray dogs as dangerous creatures carrying diseases. […] Homeless dogs also deserve to be alive”, he said in comments.

Born in Tbilisi, Patiashvili was based in France for 30 years, working with creative institutions including Clavel, Millime and D’Argo theatres. The artist returned to Georgia in 2018.