Franko B Book Launch - 14 February 2018

I wanted to tell my story, or more like try to make sense of what my story was, or what I thought it was.’ Franko B Franko B is an extraordinary, internationally acclaimed artist who has been making drawings, installations, sculptures, and performances for over 30 years. Because of Love tells the story of his childhood in Italy in an orphanage and at the hands of his abusive family, his journey to London as a young man, his return to Italy many years later as an accomplished artist, and, in between, the story of his life and loves and his becoming an artist. The evening featured contributions from Franko B, Marcia Farquhar, Anna Thew and Dominic Johnson. “Franko B’s was a painful, unavoidably compromised childhood - a tale in which the calm and quiet features of a family have fled, and he is dropped into a future that he had to forge for himself. Stolen from a conventional destiny, his body rises to become a glorious body - a body of art. It is also an eternal body, since there is a bond between the physical body and the art body. This is the condition of his freedom”. Francesca Alfano Miglietti (FAM), curator, writer, art historian “It’s a truly bewildering journey, brutal at times both as life and as punk literature – a back and forth from orphanage to abusive family home, to squat, to rave, club scene, AIDS activism, political protest and art practice – a trail that manages to be alien and yet somehow entirely recognisable”. Tim Etchells, artist “Franko B has the capability of showing us extreme strength and fragility at the same time. This can touch our heart at a very profound level”. Marina Abramovic, artist “Franko B is the kindest and gentlest of men —his work, however, is utterly unnerving. This book provides important clues to understanding the gap between the two, and why we should pay attention”. RoseLee Goldberg, curator, writer, art historian Because of Love is edited by Lois Keidan and Megan Vaughan, with a preface by Tim Etchells, designed by David Caines, illustrated by Giuditta Fullone, and published by Live Art Development Agency, 2018 Special launch price only £10. Pre-order from Unbound here.