Axis Axis

Axis Axis focuses on the materialization of text and the implications of language. Its editorial line is dedicated to concrete and sound poetry, experimental literature, transcriptions, and other types of texts originally not intended for print.

They bring together contributions from contemporary artists, poets, and curators, with an emphasis on typographic and sonic experimentation.

Axis also publishes two annual magazines: one is called X, dedicated to underground cultures, art, and literature. The other, focused on visual–concrete poetry, is called Canada; it is monographic, and each issue is an anthology devoted to a single author.

DEREK JARMAN, BLUE, AXIS AXIS, 2026 © DEREK JARMAN

Originally presented as a film in 1993, the year before Derek Jarman's death from an AIDS-related illness, Blue is a
bold and passionate work of art. The film and its script represent a powerful response to the lack of institutional
commitment in the face of the AIDS crisis.
Jarman's Blue moves through numerous multifaceted scenes—some everyday, almost mundane, others immersed
in fantastical situations. Episodes of ordinary life—having a coffee, reading the newspaper, walking down the
pavement—are transfigured into visions of Marco Polo, the Taj Mahal, or blue locked in battle with yellow. In
confronting death and a downpour of pills, Jarman portrays his own illness through deliriums and metaphors,
reflecting on the physicality of emotions in lyrical prose and grounding this narrative in a continuous return to Blue: a
colour, a feeling, a state of mind.

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Edited by Michele Bertolino, VIVONO. ARTE E AFFETTI, HIV-AIDS IN ITALIA. 1982-1996, AXIS AXIS, 2025 © Edited by Michele Bertolino

VIVONO. Arte e Affetti, HIV-AIDS in Italia. 1982–1996 is a publishing project composed of a Reader, which brings
together research and written contributions, and a Visual Archive, including medical records, artist testimonies,
articles, and part of the archival material presented in the exhibition.
It is made up of the voices, images, and lived experiences of those who shared their stories and entrusted their
knowledge - a collective effort, a first attempt, partial and unfinished – to trace the history of the HIV-AIDS epidemic
in Italy through the works produced in the country during those years.
The exhibition and this publication are the result of long conversations, sudden turns, and unexpected divergences.
They are not spaces of reconciliation, as the timelines of HIV-AIDS continue to unfold unevenly across different
geographies.
The project was supported by the Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci.

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Hedi El Kholti, Louise Lawler, Robert Burton, Arthur Poujois, Brad Feuerhelm, Julie Peeters, José Castrellon,
Riccardo Conti, Alessandro Di Pietro, Achille Filipponi, Duma, Ambra Castagnetti, Andreas Peiffer, Johnny Dufort,
Lisa Andreani, Nicola Masciandaro, Matteo Milaneschi, Eliot Möwes, Luigi Monteanni, MRZB, Andrea Pazienza,
Federico Carena & Giuseppe Salis, Francesco Tenaglia, Massimiliano Tommaso Rezza, Kevin Kunta, Xavi Ceerre,
Alsino, Pablo Dalas, Carlo Antonelli, Pavel Golik, Nyege Nyege Tapes, Mark Leckey, Mike Okay, Sabrina Tarasoff,
Min SungSig, Charlie Fox, Sven Harambasic.

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