MAPLE DEATH PRESS

MDP002 – Irene Montemurro ‘Buonasera Monogamia Vol. II‘ Collected Short Stories Zine

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Irene Montemurro was born in Switzerland and grew up in Southern Italy before moving to London, where she has completed her studies and she currently lives and works.

Her practice revolves around drawing as a diaristic ritual in which fictional and stolen elements are woven together with personal memories and anxieties to form obsessively detailed, mysteriously moody scenes. All of Irene’s subjects appear to be frozen in time and unwillingly captured by a voyeuristic, cinematic eye whom we fail to truly identify.
‘Buonasera Monogamia vol. II’ is a collection of 24 drawings and Irene’s second zine.

While the first volume comprehended three coherently graphic-novel like blocks, Buonasera Monogamia vol. II feels more akin to a collection of short stories (one spread each) about different characters who belong to the same narrative universe, made of sweaty bodies, seductive textures and cold nocturnal landscapes.
Like a one night stand with someone we will never see again, for 24 times in a row we are introduced to the characters’ most vulnerable moments only to turn the page and begin afresh.
Questions around the awkwardness of love, intimacy, loneliness and sex arise from the heavily inked pages but remain intentionally unresolved.

Irene Montemurro is a recipient of the Sir Denis Mahon Award, and she is currently preparing a solo exhibition which will take place at the Royal Drawing School (Shoreditch, London) in 2020.