Nomadic Library

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"Mysterious and austere, Italia O Italia metaphysical cities hide the enigma of a timeless place between sunburst dead-ends and shadowy arcades; the disquieting muses of Federico Clavarino shape an Italy of the mind, made of dark symbols in sunlit piazzas.

A kind of stillness permeates every photograph of this book, transforming what is portrayed in an apparently uninhabited space.

Yet all of these fragments are imbued with humanity, that can be found hidden in the invisible piece of a scenery, in the gesture of a hand, in the segment of a column or in the disjointed movement of a person: humanity is present here up to the very last stone. These flaws in everyday reality, that appear when time is put on hold by the camera, end up revealing the individuality of a place that looks as if it were waiting for a new start,or rather for a different destiny.

Originally conceived by Federico Clavarino, Italia o Italia is the first artist book published by Akina in a high print run. All images were scanned from original C-Prints printed in the darkroom by the author himself; pre-press specialist Victor Garrido worked with Clavarino and the printer at Grafica Palermo (Madrid) to achieve the best possible colour reproduction."