In the Mountains / Giorgi Rodionov

In the Mountains is a transnational, queer-feminist festival rooted in the South Caucasus and based in Berlin. The project was launched in 2022 out of a need to create space for underrepresented narratives from the Caucasus region – across political borders and in defiance of nationalistic discourses. The festival sees itself as a tool for community-building, visibility, and cross-border solidarity among queer and feminist artists and activists – many of whom live in migration or exile. Its aim is to transform shared pain into collective resilience.
Under this year‘s thematic focus, REVERSED RIVERS, the festival explores uncertainty as a political, emotional, and structural reality – an experience shared by communities across and beyond the South Caucasus. Through performances, films, panel discussions, drag shows, workshops, live music, and community dinners inspired by the Georgian Supra – a ritual feast of poetry, music, and collective toasts – the festival creates a space for connection, resilience, and shared resistance. It is co-created by its community and reflects lived experiences of instability, solidarity, and collective support.
Giorgi Rodionov is an artist and curator currently working between Berlin and Tbilisi. His multidisciplinary approach includes performance, photography, participatory art, drawing, podcasts, 3D work, art books, and storytelling – always with a focus on identity, migration, queerness, and imagining new ways of existence.
Giorgi’s work is deeply rooted in personal experience. At its centre is the South Caucasus, a region he sees as a symbolic crossroad of diversity.
In 2019, Giorgi founded untitled tbilisi, an art space dedicated to promoting collaboration among queer artists and art activists from the region. Its mission is to use art as a catalyst for dialogue on queer issues, ethnic minorities, and the complexities of belonging.
He is also a co-founder of the platform and festival In the Mountains, which brings together queer and feminist artists from the South Caucasus in Berlin. This next edition will take place from 12 to 14 September 2025.