Born out of a reflection on the nature of images and their nocturnal vocation, Better in the Dark than His Rider is both a fable and a survival guide. The collected work by Francesco Merlini spans different years, possibly quite distant from one other; shot in all four continents, his pictures reveal the unique perspective of someone who, like a sleepwalker guided by ghosts, seeks for something nameless. The title is drawn, almost literally, from a 19th century manual of optics. The original sentence – “[…] much better in the dark than his rider” – refers to a horse’s night vision compared to a human’s.
The selected sequence of pictures unravels around the transitional stage between wakefulness and sleep, engaging with hypnagogia as a sensory yet dreamlike mode of semiconscious representation. Images make up mind’s psychic contents. If in dreams self-consciousness is suspended and images look real to the extent that we are sleeping, when dozing we can consciously guide them because partially aware that we are dreaming. Stated otherwise, in lucid dreams we know we are faced with the contents of our imagination, whose edges appear hallucinatory. Dreaming is a perpetual state we do experience both asleep and awake. Thanks to imagination, the dream matter turns into the mind’s real object again.

23,5×31 cm
Hard cover with embossing
Offset UV
80 pages
Paper:
Munken Lynx Rough 150 g/m²
Fedrigoni Sirio Nero 140 g/m²
Wibalin Natural Petal

Illusive prosody - Alex Beaurain
Manifeste d'intérieurs ; penser dans les médias élargis - Javier Fernández Contreras
Le blanc nez - Fouss Daniel
L’Écureuil de James - Alice Brière-Haquet, Liuna Virardi
Seoul Flowers & Trees - tribute to Lee Friedlander
Le Gabion - Théo Robine-Langlois
Catalogue Art Guys - That's painting productions, Bernard Brunon
Débris N°2 - Théo Garnier Greuez
Artzines # 10 - Show & Tell #2 NY Special
Dédale - Laurent Chardon
Dernier royaume - Quentin Derouet
Optical Sound 2
La peinture c'est comme les pépites - Pierre Yves-Hélou + Tirage
Slow Down Abstractions - Adrien Vescovi
☀ - Manon Demarles
How to Become the Daughters of Darkness - Coll.
Teddy et le Grand Terrible - Orian Mariat.
Temps d'arrêt - Etienne Buyse
Papier magazine n°06 - Coupe du monde
Les Climats II (Japon) - Lola Reboud, Mariko Takeuchi
Bisou Magique - Coll.
De lave et de fer - Laurent Feynerou
Cruiser l'utopie – L'après et ailleurs de l'advenir queer - José Esteban Muñoz
Inframince et hyperlié - Philippe Lipcare
Musée des Beaux-Arts - Pierre Martel
L'inventaire des destructions - Éric Watier
Carnivore - Grow
(page 1 et 17) - Lorraine Druon
moj’am al arabeia - Farah Khelil & antoine lefebvre editions
How Many - Nathalie Du Pasquier
Rue Englelab, La révolution par les livres - Iran 1979 - 1983 - Hannah Darabi
The Book Fight - Chihoi
Avec ce qu'il resterait à dire - Anne Maurel 































