Absence and Presence

Description:	softground etching on copper, with chine collé. Edition of 10. ‘Absence & Presence’ suggest to me poetry and hope, rather than bombs and fear. The metaphor is in the hands of one of my ancestors, a woman who carefully mended a napkin of very fine linen instead of throwing it away.One day, I don’t remember when, I found this old tea towel with a small darning in the house, now so worn that it can’t be reused. It should have been thrown out, but I did not dare. I didn’t know what to do with it. I passed it from one pocket to another, I lost sight of it for some time, then I found that every time I had it back in my hands, I treated it with more veneration, until I was unable to part with it.This went on until I realized I had to find a way to immortalize it. So I took an impression of it on a copper plate with a soft-ground, to be etched and printed. And here it is: I have made it into a ‘monument’. Now I know that I will never lose it and I can also multiply it and give copies to anyone I want; with the press it’s easy! The hand that once took care of mending the napkin is absent, now it is my hand which caresses the plate, making the mould.The meaning of all this is that I succeeded in giving new life to something that was no use to anyone. There is a possible regeneration in all of us, every day there is something to preserve, revive and celebrate. Even books burned on Al-Mutanabbi Street are taking other endless and diverse forms of life, consecrated in the unlikely sanctuary of art.I am Venetian and I work in the field of printmaking, with the ‘Scuola Internazionale di Grafica’ in Venice, where I take care of programming courses in Print and Artist Books.Like in 2013 also this year, from May to November, my family home on the Grand Canal will be transformed into the Iraq Pavilion for the Venice Art Biennale.Joining the project ‘Absence & Presence’, for me means strengthening a bond that was there already. Printmaking, to which I devote myself with passion, is a means of communication between my home in Venice and Iraq.Right here are the walls where work by Iraqi artists will be presented, within these same walls, I found the old napkin which will now travel to Iraq like a relic of a patron saint.
Origin:	2015
Created By:	Dolcetti de Castro, Matilde
Contributor(s):	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition
Publisher:	Scuola Internazionale di Grafica di Venezia (Venezia, Italy)
Source:	http://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/AMSSH/id/1234
Collection:	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition Collection
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Copyright:	In Copyright
Subjects:	artists book art bookworks

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