Memento Mori: The Dead Among Us by Paul Koudounaris
Out of stock
Description
Come on a tour of some of the world's most unusual and macabre sites and traditions
Paul Koudounaris ventures beyond the grave in this spectacular and thought-provoking survey of human remains used in decorative, commemorative or devotional contexts across the world today.
From Bolivia's 'festival of the little pug-nosed ones', where skulls are festooned with flowers and given cigarettes, to Indonesian families who dress mummies and include them in their household routine, via naturally preserved Buddhist monks and memorials to recent genocides, this dramatic book defies taboo to demonstrate how the dead live on across the globe.
The book's inventive visual presentation by top design studio Barnbrook rejects gloomy clichés in favour of bright colours, delicate frames and eloquent motifs that echo some of the folk traditions featured in these pages.
Koudounaris is a gifted narrator, vividly recounting the stories and traditions that lie behind his ghoulish but beautiful photographs, which reveal that in many places, the realms of the living and the dead are nowhere near so distinct as Western society would have us believe.
216 pp. Hardback
22.8cm x 2.5cm x 32.1cm
1629 g
Published by Thames & Hudson (March 2015)
