ANAESTHESIA by Valentina Abenavoli

A collection of works by Valentina Abenavoli, an Italian artist and organizer of AKINA BOOKS.

In 2015, Avenavori, who was recuperating in Istanbul at the time, was shocked by the terrorist attack that occurred in Paris. Because it happened in a place where she had many friends, there was a transmission of sympathy and fear to her friends. In response to negative incidents such as terrorism and war that continued after her, Avenavoli worked on the production of a series of works on the theme of evil and empathy. The book uses found images and screenshots to challenge the theme of empathy through collective memory.

"ANAESTHESIA" is a lament of various voices, a symphony of evil within humans, a cinematically edited video screenshot, and a battle with the media. It is an outright criticism of war and terrorism, a declaration of neutrality, and an act of rebellion against the ego, in which one refuses to feel anything beyond one's limits and stands alone. Nothing could be more painful than to unburden the senses, to distance ourselves from living and bonding, without suffering any more, longing for an end to the inner loneliness in the lyricism of the suffering of the heart. What is more obscure than the desire to feel the other in all things?In the face of the other, personal pleasure becomes as absolute and universal as personal pain.What remains is the love of fear. And the fear of love."-- Valentina Abenavoli

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Title: ANAESTHESIA
Artist: Valentina Abenavoli
AKINA, 2018
Softcover, 260 x 190 mm
96 pages
Text in English
First edition
¥6,500 + tax