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

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.”