Life(s) of webs: arachnophobias, arachnophilias, and other stories

The book Tomás Saraceno. Life(s) of webs: arachnophobias, arachnophilias, and other stories is published in conjunction with the permanent installation of the same title by Tomás Saraceno in the Church of the Madonna del Carmine, located in the National Museum of Matera. 

It features essays discussing the role of spider/webs in different cultures from an inter-species perspective and a section with color images dedicated to the work in Matera.

From Saraceno’s introduction: 
“I have always been completely fascinated by spider/webs. Partly growing up in Italian exile, perhaps it was their ability to make a home anywhere and with materials they carry with them, inside, that so captivated me. Their webs have often been used as an analogy between the cosmic and the terrestrial webs of life, and continue reverberating inside me. Sometimes you can barely see them, and yet they contain a whole world, expressing the immense wisdom accumulated from hundreds of millions of years of life on Earth. 
Arachnophobia has therefore also always been a great mystery to me. How could anyone fear this small, incredibly sophisticated being? These questions have led me on a path to connect with other people and cultures like myself—of whom there are many, across the globe and throughout time—who do not abhor spiders, but respect them—in some cases, even worship them.”

“When, through the Arachnophilia com­munity, we ask some people to rescind arachnophobia, it is a call to consider life across all its webs; to weave together ways of living that do not destroy the environ­ment, but work towards more just, eco­social, inter­ and intra­species societies for all.”