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farewell snow white

farewell snow white

Regular price MOP$317.00
Regular price Sale price MOP$317.00
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Ugly, mad, cruel, dark, nightmare, fear—
Reject the sweet alternative "Snow White" version,
The peak painting performance of the famous picture book artist Aremana!

"Have you ever thought about the feelings between Snow White and the queen (stepmother)? The princess can only be stupid, cute, kind and harmless? The queen mother is doomed to be jealous, corrupt, and end up with hatred? When the princess succeeds in revenge, when the fairy tale Resentment reincarnates, beauty and darkness, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, where should our sympathy be directed?" - Yu Chixiu (translator of this book)

Different from the traditional perspective of reading "Snow White" in the past, Beatrice, the famous Italian picture book artist who has lived in France for a long time. Beatrice Alemagna was attracted by the dark nature hidden in the original Grimm's fairy tales. She first created a series of unrestrained, wild and intense paintings. Constrained by the frame of "Picture Book", the picture exudes pain and jealousy, cruelty and madness. Afterwards, Alemana retells the well-known story of "Snow White" in words, but this time she chooses the first-person narrative of her stepmother. The poetic confession is matched with paintings to form a beautiful and strong new interpretation of the fairy tale.

Creating picture books sometimes encounters stereotypes and constraints. Alemana has accumulated many years of creative experience, and she is completely free and liberated in this work, drawing beautiful and breathless paintings one after another, presenting a picture book story of a completely different level. All introductions to this book can't compare to this preface she is writing:

"The original text of "Snow White" was first published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. In it, however, there are no amusing or sentimental dwarfs, no prince's kiss, no sweet ending, only Snow White's imposition on the queen. A merciless and violent death, forcing the queen to be burned in front of her wedding guests. I asked myself, what is the truth of this story? Who was the real victim or executioner? Where did the goodness come from in the original thinking of the Brothers Grimm?

So, I wanted to flip the point of view of the text and create statements about suffering, jealousy, revenge. I want to be on the side of the ugly, as we would like to understand madness. I want to tell about cruelty, darkness, bestiality, as we can tell about the whole childhood. I wanted to rediscover the irresistible depth of stories that gave childhood the sounds of nightmares and fears of electric shock: these stories are a mixture of magic, magic and riots, and I wanted to recreate a folk painting inspired by Italy Folk images of southern and eastern European countries and simple art of Nordic folk. At the end, Alemana quoted the words of the German poet Rilke: "Beauty is but the beginning of horror." This sets the tone for the book. She believes that this kind of "horror" can be experienced by everyone at any age, and this experience is accompanied by "fascination" and a certain "fun".

The 2023 Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy specially invites Alemana to hold a solo exhibition in her hometown and hold a symposium at the venue. The most eye-catching one is this new work "Farewell, Snow White". The curatorial description describes this work that subverts fairy tales: "Beatrice Alemana created a falling abyss for everyone. When she accompanied us across the abyss, she disarmed us and fell into the abyss." The abyss. We cannot help falling, because there is no turning back... To get out, you must go in; to find the exit, you have to get lost in it."

This book provides a fresh perspective on re-reading the classics. The images are breathtaking, beautiful and scary, and should not be missed.
The specifications of the Chinese version are the same as those of the original book. The large-format bare-back hardcover is printed in five colors. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is Alemana's picture album.

SKU:9786267206935

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