The research project ‘TRAUM (dream) + RAUM (space) = TRAUMA’ observes the meaning of trauma in its many forms, and analyses how it shapes perception, from the singular to the collective. We are witnessing incredible despair, loss, and suffering: what happens when we start acknowledging how much of our reality is driven by trauma? Trauma can be a passage, a ritual to another level of consciousness. It changes our brain’s biochemistry, influencing our instincts. If we let trauma affect our perception of reality, then trauma becomes reality. But trauma is not a truth, it’s itself a perception. So we can choose to act towards change. We can reconsider our ways of leading our own private lives as well as a society for the sake of a collective well-being.
This artist's book aims to give a sense of the fragmented truth, involuntary associations and flashbacks typical of the post-traumatic experience. It is conceived as a visual diary, attempting to frame a year of research into the relationship between our physical and mental realities. The content is an intersection of research pictures, material experimentations in regard to body and movement, and visual whispers from the diverse contexts that accompanied the investigation: as if a certain synchronization has happened between an inner flow of thoughts and the reality of mundane situations. This book aims to make a visual contribution to awareness of trauma as part of the ‘normality’, of how it nestles in the fibres of our bodies and how it determines our relationship to itself, others and the outside world.
Images: Giulia Cauti, Lucia Estevez, Giulia N. Comito
Texts: Giulia Cauti
Graphic design: Klim Kutsevskyy (DITO Studio)
Printing: 4graph srl (Italy)
Edition: 250 copies
This book is for sale at the library of the Academy,
online via this form
or via art&research@ap.be
