Book of Water

Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos’s Book of Water is a collection of short stories about desire, fear, life, care, and ecological anxiety, all narrated through the physical and metaphysical presence of water. This water is not the open, bucolic water of the romantic imagination. It is the claustrophobic water of the deep seabed, the flooded cities, the womb. It is a water that brings oblivion, serenity, and salvation.

At first impression, the stories are narrated by a multiplicity of voices preoccupied with everyday psychological situations. At some point, however, the quotidian withdraws and gives way to surreal and disorienting moments of ethical, political, psychoanalytical, ecological, and personal challenges. The book is a literary response to the current geological epoch of the Anthropocene, where the effect of the human presence on the planet and its various elements seems by now irreversible. The bodies in this collection are not limited to the human-nonhuman and inhuman alike centre in the stories. The protagonist, however, remains the body of water.

Author Biography

Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos lives in London and Venice. He is an artist working with performance, painting, photography, sculpture, and other media, and has shown his work in the 58th Venice Art Biennale 2019, the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale 2016, the Tate Modern, Inhotim Instituto de Arte Contemporânea Brazil, the Danish Royal Cast Collection, the Royal Music Academy of Sweden, the London College of Communication, the Arebyte Gallery, Danielle Arnaud London, Ca’ Pisani Venice, and the Palais de Tokyo, among other institutions. He is also Professor and Director of The Westminster Law & Theory Lab at the University of Westminster, and teaches at the Royal College of Art London. He is the author of ten academic books and numerous articles, art catalogue entries, and short stories.

Sakis Kyratzis studied Linguistics and Communication Design. He is currently Senior Lecturer at University of the Arts, London. He designs, writes, teaches and translates.