Instagram story viewer> @ranana.t> Posts

Rana Tabatabaie

@ranana.t

120

posts

1.9K

followers

2863

following

Art department / Architecture
London

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

Elsa Rouy ‘Coronis in Purple Gore’

Created during the @sendb00ks residency @castelloroccasinibalda
On the reverse of their sleeve each artist is in conversation with @sendb00ks about Ovid’s Metamorphoses

🖤
“I think it was Annie Ernaux who said; Pain cannot be kept intact, it needs to be “processed,” converted into humour.

I don’t think that humans are capable of experiencing that much pain. So metamorphosis happens when characters go through this intense grief. And then they have to change, they can’t contain it.

And the purple?
That was the line that began the painting: “and as she drew the keen shaft from the wound, her snow-white limbs were bathed in purple blood.

🖤

The edition is 1 of 150 sleeves made during the 2026 Sendb00ks residency at Castello di Rocca Sinibalda
The collection contains works by Okiki Akinfe, Elsa Rouy, Tali Lennox, Jan Melka, Mathilde Albouy and Inès di Folco Jemni

Availible on our website with 1/600 editions of Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Sleeves printed at @mountstreetprinters

1. Sleeve design @elsa.rouy @ranana.t
2,3 Elsa in her studio by @gemmajanes
4 Elsa signed editions
5 Boxed up to be smuggled through hand luggage
6 Very very special edition
7 Purple painting
8 Numbering the books
9 Elsa buying a chicken to cook for us all
10 Elsa in Studio on iPhone ❤️‍🔥 good times by @ranana.t

243

6

11 days ago

taken in Castello di Rocca Sinibalda by @ranana.t

33

1

20 days ago

by @ranana.t

42

0

24 days ago

night dreaming sometimes daydreaming all the time ! by @ranana.t

147

8

a month ago

by @ranana.t

33

0

a month ago

Last night to mark the solstice, we climbed up to the battlements at @castelloroccasinibalda where the lighting keeps striking this single point on the scorpions sting by @ranana.t

50

0

a month ago

This Friday @elsa.rouy @okikiakinfe @mathildealbouy @inesdifolcojemni @talilennox and
@janmelk arrive by night to the Scorpion shaped castle of @castelloroccasinibalda . For two weeks they will respond to Ovid’s Metamorphoses by creating artworks, later to be used as detachable book sleeves for our upcoming publication.

Each edition of 600 will be hand numbered as inspired by The Black Sun Press. Its founder, Caresse Crosby spent many years at the castle

Pre-orders are now live, follow along with us online and then be the first to hold the book in your hands by @ranana.t

402

17

a month ago

béton brut

to friends and lovers along the way ❤️ by @ranana.t

154

6

2 months ago

@zolo.press taken in 180 the Strand by @ranana.t

35

0

2 months ago

In hindsight…..april slapped by @ranana.t

59

2

3 months ago

A castle born from the mountain is soon to be inhabited by artists and writers responding to the theme of Metamorphoses.

Tasked with modernising a medieval fortress, the structure was created by Baldassarre Peruzzi, who abandoned the idealised geometries of the High Renaissance in favour of cradling a spur of rock overhanging the Turano Valley. With Mannerist intentions, the fortress metamorphosed into a bold zoomorphic structure, depicting an eagle or a Scorpion in its plan.

Over the next few weeks, @gemmajanes @biancaapozzi and I will be working to bring to life a residency within its walls, and uncovering some Ovidian mythology, signs and symbols. 🐍🦂

Tbc x taken in Rome, Italy by @ranana.t

101

6

3 months ago

A castle born from the mountain itself, hosts our first residency:

Stone permeates Ovid's Metamorphoses in a remarkable variety of shapes, sizes, and types. Aconae, calculus, cautis, lapis, molaris, pu-mex, rupes, saxum, scopulus, silex, and tophus are the words Ovid uses in Metamorphoses to describe his petrified realm, from the smallest polished pebble in a stream to the largest boulder upon a mountain. In its stoniness, Ovid's poem evokes the geology of the Mediterranean world, the hardness and austerity of its terrain.

Rocca Sinibalda Castle, a Grade I Listed building, has stood since the 11th century on a spur of rock overhanging the Turano Valley. Its current appearance originates from a bold zoomorphic design by the Renaissance architect Baldassarre Peruzzi: a powerful military fortress doubling with a sumptuous aristocratic palace.

-Rana Tabatabaie

Coming soon June 2026

@biancaapozzi @castelloroccasinibalda @ranana.t @gemmajanes @sendb00ks @umbertagb by @ranana.t

506

17

3 months ago