This book stems from Renascimento, [ Rebirth ] by Siron Franco, one of the

most important contemporary artists in Brazil. Comprising 365 mannequins

hung on wire, the installation is an homage to the victims of the Covid-19

pandemic, devising a reflection upon life. The floating shadows from these

mannequins, as projected on the ground and on the artist’s studio walls

in Aparecida de Goiânia, in the Brazilian Cerrado, have developed into

11 poetic and mysterious photographs. Each photo has become a printed

photo-engraving to which 22 carat ancestral gold leaves were added,

scattered here and there, amid the paper sheets.

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Antes de Tocar o Céu [Before Touching the Sky], devises a dialogue

between the surprising shadows of Siron Franco and the unique work

by the pre-modernist “Shadows Poet” Augusto dos Anjos. Artisanally printed

on Hahnemühle cotton paper and bookbound in linen, this book represents

an encounter of various materials, such as dirt and gold. Curator of this

edition, Claudia Ahimsa, highlights: “Whereas both gold and dirt have always

been recurrent substances in Augusto and Siron’s productions, we can now

read, see and touch these pages like Golden shadows from a single Sun.”