BLUE
Derek Jarman
Axis Axis is pleased to present the release of Blue by Derek Jarman. For the first time in Italian, this publication brings the complete transcription of all the texts from Derek Jarman's Blue.
The film, originally presented in 1993, the year before Jarman’s death from an AIDS-related illness, is constructed around a single, immaterial blue frame that holds space for the soundtrack—composed by Simon Fisher Turner with contributions from Coil and other artists—and for Jarman’s voice, which quietly unfolds fragments of his life and illness. It stands as one of the most radical and defining gestures of 1990s art. Moving fluidly between poetry, video art, cinema, and field recording, it becomes less a film than a threshold experience—at once intimate and abstract—often understood as Derek Jarman’s final testament.
Dici al ragazzo apri gli occhi
quando li apre, e vede la luce
gli strappi un grido. Dicendo
O Blu, sgorga!
O Blu, sorgi!
O Blu, ascendi!
O Blu, entra.
Sono seduto con alcuni amici, beviamo caffè servito da giovani profughi bosniaci. La guerra infuria sui giornali e nelle strade devastate di Sarajevo.
Tania mi ha detto “Ti sei messo i vestiti al rovescio, al contrario”. Visto che c’eravamo solo noi due me li sono subito tolti e rimessi nel verso giusto. Arrivo qui sempre prima che aprano le porte.
Derek Jarman
Blue and its script represent a powerful response to the institutional indifference that met the AIDS crisis. Jarman's Blue moves through numerous multifaceted scenes—some everyday, almost mundane, others immersed in fantastical situations. Episodes of ordinary life—having a coffee, reading the newspaper, walking down the pavement—are transfigured into visions of Marco Polo, the Taj Mahal, or blue locked in battle with yellow. In confronting death and a downpour of pills, Jarman portrays his own illness through deliriums and metaphors, reflecting on the physicality of emotions in lyrical prose and grounding this narrative in a continuous return to Blue: a colour, a feeling, a state of mind. Blue is not a space of closure. The times of AIDS continue to unfold unevenly, and this work remains as urgent as ever.
This Italian-language edition corresponds, with several additions—namely to the glossary and to the film’s end credits—to the text as it appears in the volume published by David Zwirner Books in 2023. Translations by: Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo, Francesca Sebastian Puopolo, Ernesto Tomasini.
Derek Jarman (1942–1994) was a British filmmaker, artist, set designer, and activist, a central figure in the UK underground and queer avant-garde scene between the 1970s and early 1990s. Born in Northwood (London), he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, initially working as a painter and theatre designer before moving into cinema. His debut Sebastiane (1976), shot entirely in Latin, announced a radical and disruptive approach to film, later evolving into a more essayistic and painterly style in works such as Caravaggio (1986) and Edward II (1991). Openly gay and a prominent LGBTQ+ activist, Jarman continued to work after being diagnosed HIV-positive in 1986, transforming illness into a poetic and political language, culminating in Blue (1993). In his final years he lived at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, where he created an iconic garden that became part of his artistic universe. He died on 19 February 1994 from AIDS-related complications.
10x17 cm
80 pgs (IT)
First edition
1000 copies
BLUE
Derek Jarman
Axis Axis is pleased to present the release of Blue by Derek Jarman. For the first time in Italian, this publication brings the complete transcription of all the texts from Derek Jarman's Blue.
The film, originally presented in 1993, the year before Jarman’s death from an AIDS-related illness, is constructed around a single, immaterial blue frame that holds space for the soundtrack—composed by Simon Fisher Turner with contributions from Coil and other artists—and for Jarman’s voice, which quietly unfolds fragments of his life and illness. It stands as one of the most radical and defining gestures of 1990s art. Moving fluidly between poetry, video art, cinema, and field recording, it becomes less a film than a threshold experience—at once intimate and abstract—often understood as Derek Jarman’s final testament.
Dici al ragazzo apri gli occhi
quando li apre, e vede la luce
gli strappi un grido. Dicendo
O Blu, sgorga!
O Blu, sorgi!
O Blu, ascendi!
O Blu, entra.
Sono seduto con alcuni amici, beviamo caffè servito da giovani profughi bosniaci. La guerra infuria sui giornali e nelle strade devastate di Sarajevo.
Tania mi ha detto “Ti sei messo i vestiti al rovescio, al contrario”. Visto che c’eravamo solo noi due me li sono subito tolti e rimessi nel verso giusto. Arrivo qui sempre prima che aprano le porte.
Derek Jarman
Blue and its script represent a powerful response to the institutional indifference that met the AIDS crisis. Jarman's Blue moves through numerous multifaceted scenes—some everyday, almost mundane, others immersed in fantastical situations. Episodes of ordinary life—having a coffee, reading the newspaper, walking down the pavement—are transfigured into visions of Marco Polo, the Taj Mahal, or blue locked in battle with yellow. In confronting death and a downpour of pills, Jarman portrays his own illness through deliriums and metaphors, reflecting on the physicality of emotions in lyrical prose and grounding this narrative in a continuous return to Blue: a colour, a feeling, a state of mind. Blue is not a space of closure. The times of AIDS continue to unfold unevenly, and this work remains as urgent as ever.
This Italian-language edition corresponds, with several additions—namely to the glossary and to the film’s end credits—to the text as it appears in the volume published by David Zwirner Books in 2023. Translations by: Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo, Francesca Sebastian Puopolo, Ernesto Tomasini.
Derek Jarman (1942–1994) was a British filmmaker, artist, set designer, and activist, a central figure in the UK underground and queer avant-garde scene between the 1970s and early 1990s. Born in Northwood (London), he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, initially working as a painter and theatre designer before moving into cinema. His debut Sebastiane (1976), shot entirely in Latin, announced a radical and disruptive approach to film, later evolving into a more essayistic and painterly style in works such as Caravaggio (1986) and Edward II (1991). Openly gay and a prominent LGBTQ+ activist, Jarman continued to work after being diagnosed HIV-positive in 1986, transforming illness into a poetic and political language, culminating in Blue (1993). In his final years he lived at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, where he created an iconic garden that became part of his artistic universe. He died on 19 February 1994 from AIDS-related complications.
10x17 cm
80 pgs (IT)
First edition
1000 copies
€ 18,00
BUY (Italy)
BUY (Europe)
BUY (World)