The Modern Spirit is Vivisective
Francesca Catastini
ANZENBERGEREDITION
English
Text by Federica Chiocchetti
Hardcover
120 pages
160 x 230mm
2016
ISBN 978386828952-7
“The modern spirit is vivisective. Vivisection itself is the most modern process one can conceive. The ancient spirit accepted phenomena with bad grace. The ancient method investigated law with the lantern of justice, morality with the lantern of revelation, art with the lantern of tradition. But all these lanterns have magical properties: they transform and disfigure. The modern method examines its territory by the light of day.”
About the artist
Francesca Catastini (Lucca, 1982) is based in Tuscany. Raised in a family with a strong scientific background, she developed an early interest for ethology and medicine. At the age of five she made her first (and last) attempt to preserve two little animals, a dead bird and a field mouse, by wrapping them tightly in black bin liners and keeping them in a shoe box. To her mother’s horror, she discovered the box under her bed and immediately threw the experiment away! Apparently Francesca was severely told off, but cannot remember the details… Eventually she decided to keep images, instead of things (if for no other reason than to avoid the smell). She feels that as a highly sensitive person, it is easier to study the facts of life when they are unable to run away. Having initially studied biology, she went on to complete a MA in Photography and Visual Design in Milan in 2009
Francesca Catastini
About the publisher
AnzenbergerEdition has been founded by Regina Maria Anzenberger in 2013, after expanding the AnzenbergerGallery bookshop. Both, the publishing house and the bookshop are part of the AnzenbergerGallery and can be visited at Absberggasse 27, 1100 Vienna, Austria. It focuses on rare, selfpublished, signed and limited edition photography books and is an alternative resource for all photo book lovers. In September 2012 the gallery has moved to the former premises of the Anker bread factory. It has been the biggest bread factory in Europe once. Galleries such as OstLicht. Galerie fuer Fotografie, Hilger Brotkunsthalle, Galerie 11/nullnull by Kunstnetzwerk, atelier10, loft8 and many other galleries and showrooms are located there.
