Published together with the Fondazione ICA Milano, "Ministry of Loneliness" reproduces and expands on the research that Rebecca Moccia presented on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name. Departing from the exploration of the Ministry of Loneliness – established in 2018 in the United Kingdom and replicated in 2021 in other countries such as Canada and Japan – the artist’s work develops a reflection on the political and social structures that shape the emotional state of loneliness and its perception in contemporary society. In the project, which stems from a research trip unfolding between Italy, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom, the phantasmal and pervasive shadow of isolation that permeates Western societies takes shape in a layered investigation extending to the very roots that trigger it: from the advancement of the techno-scientific order of modern life to the rise of liberal capitalism.
The volume reproduces the collection of notes that formed the basis of Moccia’s project in its entirety – a digital collage with diary-like traits, consisting of texts, images, reports and reflections on various kinds of documents. The critical texts by Chiara Nuzzi – curator of the exhibition – and Vincenzo Estremo broaden Rebecca Moccia’s work on a theoretical level, highlighting how between loneliness and individualisation there lies a dialectical relationship inextricably bound up in the modes of late-capitalist production.