Vittorio Santoro. Rhinocéros/Bérenger

Vittorio Santoro’s renewed interest in the play ‘Rhinocéros’ (1959) by Romanian-French avant-garde playwright Eugène Ionesco led to this project. His curiosity was sparked by the highly polarised social and political climate of today, and the publication accompanies the artist’s solo exhibition at Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, in 2022. Besides images of the works featured in the exhibition, conceived over the last four years, the book includes the archive and research material that triggered their conception, such as the play itself, the seminal book ‘Psychologie des foules’ (1895) by Gustave Le Bon, and extracts from current print media, plus a critical text by Rebecca Geldard. [publisher's note]