04-06-2020 when the flag is in a fixed position. Information is encoded by the position of flags; it read rods, disks, paddles, or occasionally bare gloved hands. at a distance by means of visual signals with hand-held flags, FLAG SEMAPHORE

Hello Mattia, I hope you are doing fine. This is Richard Niessen, from Amsterdam. I’m happy you are willing to coorporate with me in this project. I’m doing is the telegraphy system conveying information the graphic design for the Dutch pavilion of the Architecture Bienial. My design is based on the idea of the fan. is a line of stations, typically towers,

For me the sample fan is a very interesting medium and metaphore that can show a diversity, without A SEMAPHORE TELEGRAPH for the purpose of conveying textual information by means visual signals. It uses pivoted indicator arms and conveys information according to the direction indicators point. The most widely used system was invented in 1792 by Claude Chappe, and was popular in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries. an hierarchy. Bisides this, two fans opened refer It has been said that in the courts of England, Spain fans were used in a more to the western and eastern hemisphere in the or less secret, unspoken code of messages. representation of the world. These fan languages were a way to cope with the restricting social etiquette. In the late 1790s Charles Francis Badini For the Exploratorium, I think it would be nice to designed what he named ‘Fanology’. Printed instructions were written on the continue working with the fan. We are here Venice fans informing ladies how to use them. was hoping to cennect me to Doretta Davanzo Robert Rowe’s LADIES TELEGRAPH seemed slightly easier to use. Twenty-six flaps Poli, a Venetian textile expert who wrote in the corresponded to the letters of the alphabet catalogue ‘Ventagli italiani’, but unfortunately she and you would point to each letter to make a word. There was also a 27th flap to is not able to join this track of the Exploratorium. signify a full stop.

When lost for words, we point, wave, motion and otherwise use our hands to attempt to indicate meaning. John Bulwer (1606 – 1656), an English doctor and philosopher, attempted to record the vocabulary contained in hand gestures and bodily motions and, in 1644, published Chirologia, or the NATURAL LANGUAGE OF THE HAND, an illustrated collection of hand and finger gestures that were intended for an orator to memorise and perform whilst speaking.

INTERNATIONAL MARITIME SIGNAL FLAGS refers to various flags used to communicate with ships. The principal system of flags and associated codes is the ‘International Code of Signals’. Various navies have flag Nevertheless I just started to find out more about systems with additional flags and codes, and other flags are used in special uses, or the fan. But few historic totems carried as much have historical significance. symbolic weight as the handheld decorative fan. As an example, during a certain period of time, the fan became an ideal instrument of communication and its main gestures were known as “the language of the fan”. The earliest such language was made up of individual letters, almost like a semaphore alphabet, later variations were extensions of body language, mostly to transmit a love code.

Not only are fans beautiful, a great means for communication, used in social etiquette and Paulina Ołowska’s “ALPHABET” was inspired thus a carrier of expression in many cultures, by the book entitled “ABECEDA” by Karel they are foremost practical objects to carry on a Teige, who created in 1926 the experimental “moving alphabet”, in cooperation with warm day in times of climate change. The ornate, Milca Mayerova. “Alphabet” combines dramatic, and once-ubiquitous item is more worth rhythmicity with constructivist fascination for typography and points to the rhetorical resurrecting than ever: Wouldn’t it be great to function of dance: three performers arrange develop an updated messaging system for these their bodies to form 26 letters confronting the alphabet of the written language with battery-free tools to cool down? the “alphabet” of gestures and movements, create a new system of expressing meanings.

20200703 Pagina's Exploratorium.indd 2 03-07-20 11:43 The word fan derived from the Latin vannus, What I would like to explore is the fan as a carrier the Roman instrument for winnowing grain. This winnowing-fan, held sacred by all of expression. We are here Venice now connected the peoples of the ancient world must be me to you. I found out you have a lot of experience accounted amongst the earliest of the prolific fan-family. The origin of hand in Commedia dell’Arte, that you are working in fans can be traced back 4.000 years ago in Teatrino Groggia? And I see you are holding ‘The Egypt. It was used in ceremonies and seen as a symol of power. In this great funeral Grammar of Fantasy’ in your hands… “the need for procession from a royal writer in Thebes imagination to have its place in education”… maybe servants wear similar CRESCENT-SHAPED MATTED FANS, along with the more graceful we can incorporate this in the project! semicircular spring- used by ladies All the best, to fan themselves. Richard

CEREMONIAL FANS were employed by the Native 09-06-2020 Americans; there is an account of the visit of a Taensas chief on the banks of the Lower Mississippi to Le Sieur de La Dear Richard, Salle in 1682: “The Chief condescended to visit La Salle at his camp. A master of Thanks for your nice mail. I am a creative who ceremonies and six attendants preceded him, loves to collaborate with other artists, who loves to clear the path and prepare the place of meeting. When all was ready, he was seen life and human beings. In recent years my research advancing and preceded by two men bearing work starting from the theater flocks up to flood white fans, while a third displayed a disc of burnished copper, to represent the Sun, the whole city (shops, hotels, prisons, fields, private his ancestor, or, as others will have it, houses, noble palaces) is the tool to tell the change his elder brother.” It is safe to assume that these fans were of feathers, and the of the city and its inhabitants over the course of the incident is an evidence that the use of the time but above all of the time in which we live. fan in high ceremonial was universal, and common to both East and West. The fan can be a thousand things. funny, seductive, repelling. I can imagine many variations of its language. I can imagine making a performance or a video, it all also depends on the type of project you have in mind. All the best Mattia . Pochteca, professional, can be traced back to the INDIAN HAND FANS SYMBOL OF THE MERCHANT CLASS 15-06-2020 It is quite probable that the famous Ratinlixul vase depict merchants on a journey. The chief personage, in litter, holds a fan, long-distance traveling merchants in the Aztec Empire, occupied a high status in Aztec society, below the noble class. They were responsible for providing the materials that Aztec nobility used to display their wealth, which were often obtained from foreign sources. The origins of ancient times, when they were used in temples to fan deities, in the royal courts and households. There is a mention of fans in the Indian Epic poem - Mahabharat (a major Sanskrit epics of ancient India). Temple fans vary in size from tiny to large fans needing the full strength of a person to move them. The villages and towns have varieties of traditional hand fans. In each place, the fans are made of different materials and have intricate designs. Dear Mattia, Feather fans were used for ceremonial purposes by the ruling Incas of South Thanks for your message, I hope the re-opening America. Ritual as a performance requires of the theater went well. In the meantime I made actors and spectators with a shared foundation of symbols, and is therefore a very rough start to see what happens when the inextricably linked to a given context of fans are connected to the stock characters of the social identity, tradition and meaning. Acts like vocalization, dance, and sacrifice are Commedia dell’arte, and to see what happens when all examples of common elements, and many I would create patterns for them in a way that the such acts require THEATRICAL PROPS FOR ORNAMENTATION. Fans played a significant set of fans also becomes a bit like a set of signs. part in the rituals as they could represent wealth and status as well refer symbolically to the concept of certain spirits.

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) is perhaps one of the best known early adopters of fan- power in . She enjoyed clutching and collecting folding fans and had a collection of 27 at the end of her life. Fans arrived late in her reign as gifts from afar from individuals like Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. Queen Elizabeth employed these fans when POWER DRESSING for some of her many portraits that were designed to project her status and authority.

20200703 Pagina's Exploratorium.indd 3 03-07-20 11:43 In my work I somehow always end up mixing sings, developed into foldable wooden fans. like, readable and portable collections. At some point these their base binding the strips together into expandable, fan- of wood called aristocrats, bureaucrats, and rulers used portable strips pre-modern Japan (552–784), before the invention of , But the most endorsed history of folding fan is that in fanning her face mask at a festival led to the tool’s creation. wings of a bat, while the Chinese believe sight woman In Japan the fan is thought to be modelled after folding China with both countries holding legends of ite screation. The folding fan is recognized as being invented in Japan or symbols and ornaments into a graphic language.

What I am interested in is how, in society, we all have our identity, our role, but less and less

opportunities to change roles, to be able to step MOKKAN into the shoes of someone else. In contrary, we

live more and more in our own bubble. It would as notebooks. Rivets were attached at be nice if we could develop a role playing game with the fans, in a way that we can give people the possibility to – for once – play the captain or the servant. All the best, Richard The CHINESE DANCING FAN was developed in the seventh century, and the management of Dear Richard, the fan became a highly regarded feminine art. The Mai Ogi has ten sticks and a thick Beautiful the idea of urging people to get out of paper mount showing the family crest. their bubble. I thought of two possible creative Chinese painters crafted many fan decoration designs. The Chinese fan dance plays a few outcomes: different roles in China. It is used to help pass down stories and traditions of Chinese culture, as entertainment and the 1) a live performance with an actor inside the choreography encourages physical fitness pavilion in loop interprets the different roles using and the ability to memorize routines. The the fans you created fans are used to accentuate the dancers’ movements and costumes. 2) a video tutorial playing the different characters and at the same time invites the audience to do the same. Theater in theater.

We can shoot and transmit the videos that result from this side. It also depends on what the budget is to carry out this part of the project. Do you already have an idea about it? All the best COMMEMORATIVE Mattia

Hello Mattia, Thanks for your quick reply! Both outcomes sound good, for me this already such a nice expansion of A JAPANESE WAR FAN or Tessen (”iron fan”) is my own scope! a weaponized Japanese hand fan designed for use in warfare. Several types of war fans were used by the samurai class of feudal What we need to do anyway is to make up a good Japan and each had a different look and set of characters (based on the stock characters of purpose. One of the most significant uses was as a signalling device. The commander the Commedia dell’arte) and maybe some rough would raise or lower his fan and point

guidelines for the development of the stories (or . In Europe and the USA, fans were popular gifts for in different ways to issue commands to the soldiers, which would then be passed some tips like mentioned in ‘The Grammar of on by other forms of visible and audible Fantasy’). signalling.War fans could also be used as weapons. The art of fighting with war fans

Fans were often used for advertising or as SOUVENIRS guests at weddings or important public events. Churches and chapels provided Psalm- or scripture-printed fans for their congregations on especially hot days. Many fans had political cartoons or were made with specific colors to represent one’s political stance. This 1930’s gloriously graphic, over-sized and satin folk art fan is encrypted with 12 quotes from George Washington’s Farewell Address. is tessenjutsu. Maybe this is what we can do within the The fan is one of the complements for the Exploratorium now, and later on we can think FLAMENCO DANCE, especially by women during about how to continue to produce and perform. So their interpretations. In the 19th century fans were used by ladies of the court to my question would be: can tou give an example of send secret messages to the knights, and how to make the stock characters contemporary? it is precisely the use of that particular language that caused it to become a Bye, complement to flamenco dancing, where it Richard now plays an essential role. Thanks to the use of the fan in flamenco, the dancers manage to give a special grace and style to their interpretations. Dear Richard, The great strength of the Commedia dell’arte is in its being faithful to reality today as then: the figure The paintings on folding fans are works of of the miser, the jealous, the foolish, the servant. art that their owners can enjoy privately, whenever and wherever they choose. With the And beyond it is the actor’s ability to make the folding fan — a canvas on which carefully character contemporary. selected images could readily be applied and shared — it was particularly easy to depict a specific scene from a long tale. By If we work with Eleonora Fuser, a very good attaching fan paintings to folding screens or collecting them in albums of paintings, actress of the commedia dell’arte, we can deepen people could savor the entire story. The every character. Please let me know if we will have motifs chosen with care to suit the small plane have much in common with waka poetry, the budget to pay the actress, the technician and the which expresses its subject in a limited production. number of syllables. That connection led, in the late Muromachi period (1336-1573), Best to the development of what are called OGI Mattia NO SOSHI, “fan-shaped paintings with waka poems,” a genre with puzzle-solving elements in which waka poems were guessed at based on the paintings on folding fans.

20200703 Pagina's Exploratorium.indd 4 03-07-20 11:43 The COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE is the earliest Hello Mattia, example of professional secular theatre in Europe characterised by improvised dialogue, That is excactly what I like about the Commedia the use of leather half-masks and ‘stock dell’arte, the stereotypes, the archetypes that can be character’ types. Italian in origin it soon traversed much of Europe influencing the filled in, and made contemporary, just like a good development of theatre. The plays were drawn evergreen or folk song. from ‘the private sphere of human life’, therefore universal in their details: the realities of making one’s way in the world, What I found on internet is that there are four negotiating one’s position in the social hierarchy, attempting to fulfil desires and groups, like you also mentioned, the old men, the to strive for contentment have not changed lovers, the captains and the servants – who is who? over the millennia. And in these groups there are various characters right? Is that a fixed amount? is a stereotypical fictional person or type STOCK CHARACTER A of person in a work art such as novel, play, or film who audiences recognize from frequent recurrences in a particular literary tradition. There is a wide range of stock characters, covering men and women of various ages, social classes demeanors. They are archetypal characters distinguished by their simplification and flatness thus easy targets for parody and to be criticized as clichés, but they are well an effective time- and effort-saving shortcut for story creators.

Masked characters are often referred to as “MASKS”. In other words, the characteristics of the character and those of the of the mask are the same. In spite of the obvious artifice of masks and stylisation, the characters of the Commedia dell’Arte were drawn from elements of real contemporary types. Many of them were associated with specifi c cities and Is it possible to already start thinking about a plot regions of Italy, and often expressed with contemporary characters? I understand that themselves in the local vernacular. Indeed, a good example of this is to be found in it is a lot about improvising, but I can imagine you the mask of Pantalone, the old Venetian have something in your mind, to understand what merchant. the possibilities are, and how can we introduce the ‘set of fans’ to invite the audience? All the best, Richard

16-6-2020 Commedia scenes influenced the baroque and rococo lifestyle where grandiose balls took the disguise of Venetian-style MASQUERADES. Dear Richard, There we meet an implement that is closely related to the fan: the mask. The Zanni of As you correctly suggest, the characters are four: the Commedia dell’Arte all wore masks as the old men, servants, lovers, and the captain. part of their typical dress. Masks and fans often serve similar purposes as one can hide oneself behind, spy on someone without Each of these characters has different athletic and being seen, or simply act more liberally in disguise. movement skills. For the research I deal with the citizenship theater that involves the Venetians and

shoes, stockings, and breeches. robe that went down to his heels, and he would have on black went below the knees. Over gown, he would have a long black entirely in black. He wore a long black gown or jacket that the Bolognese scholars. Il Dottore is almost always clothed IL DOTTORE’S COSTUME that helps the audience understand who character is. Each character in Commedia dell’arte has a distinct costume which is inspired by the Commedia dell’arte in a contemporary key, I can find the characters in Venice today.

Initially the Commedia dell’arte was without script, improvised on a canvas, the main theme, the settings and a few inputs. For the rest it’s all improvised action with masks. Halfway the 18th was a play on the academic dress of century, Carlo Goldoni innovates the theatrical characters by overcoming the limits of masks and inserting the psychological profile and behavior of the character. In this way Goldoni portrays , Napoleon outlawed the Commedia the society of his time in all its aspects and the characters become contemporary.

I could do the same: the servants are poor but clever. Colombina could be a waitress on the floors of a five-star hotel in Venice. And Arlecchino could be a dishwasher (who comes from outside, let’s A PARTISAN PLATFORM say Bengali) who works in a kitchen of a Venetian

Noble Family. He is in trouble and always hungry.

The old man is rich and stingy and I imagine he

During the Napoleonic occupation of Italy, instigators reform and critics used the carnival masks to hide their identities while fueling political agendas in the performances, challenging social rule and hurling blatant insults criticisms at the regime. In 1797, in order to destroy the impromptu style of carnival as dell’arte. It was not reborn in Venice until 1979. could be the owner of a Murano glass factory.

20200703 Pagina's Exploratorium.indd 5 03-07-20 11:43 The Lovers are a constant hyperbole of emotions: Gianni Rodari was not only the author of many beloved children’s books, he was the girl could be the daughter of the owner of the also an educator and activist who truly glass furnace and the guy the young offspring of understood the power of the imaginative life. In THE GRAMMAR OF FANTASY Rodari a noble family who no longer has a penny. Lovers presents numerous and wonderful techniques only think of love, they are self-centered, immature for creating stories. He discusses these specific techniques in the context of and always need the help of servants: Colombina the imagination, fairy tales, folk tales, (the maid) could work in the hotel bought by the children’s stories, cognitive development, and compassionate education. Rodari was rich owner of the furnace. It is the plot that counts one of the founders of the innovative in the Commedia dell’arte. educational approach that began in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The Grammar of Fantasy grew out of a series of informal workshops that The captain could be the father of the lover, the Rodari conducted there. father in the Venetian Noble Family. He speaks Spanish since he has traveled and fought. BRUNO TAUT (1880 – 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author. These six characters can all be interpreted by He was active during the Weimar period and Eleonora Fuser and animated in a story like the one is known for his theoretical works as well as his building designs. He interpreted told now in a continuous interweaving. This in my color into deeper meanings in his buildings. opinion may be the architecture of the project for Early on, as Taut flirted with an artist’s career, he used colors to create elements you as far as theater is concerned. of psychological, decorative and spatial Hug, design. For Taut, color played a dual role: it was a ‘symbol of the new happiness’ but Mattia also spread a folksy good cheer throughout the house, inside and out. The color palette in his book ‘Ein Wohnhaus’ (1929) forms an alphabet. 17-06-2020

Hello Mattia, People can see the Commedia dell’arte as a typical Western European framework… to me this form of theatre feels quite universal, I can imagine that, let’s say in Africa or India there are forms of theater based on the same principle.

We can take the stucture and fill it in in a way that it makes sense to be part of the Exploratorium. The ‘plot’ as you set out in your last mail could be one, but in the future we need more, I can imgaine at least one in which plants or buildings play a role (linking the project to the ‘themes’ of multispecies

Although the use of various devices to is a speculative research into and multiplicity). Another plot can give shape to the signify individuals and groups goes back to antiquity, both the form and use of such recent social discussions. ? What would be the plight of planet? devices varied widely, and the concept of regular, hereditary designs, constituting

I can create a set of fans for each plot, which allows the distinguishing feature of HERALDRY, did Life not develop until the in me to be more specific. Europe. It is very often claimed that the All the best, use of helmets with face guards during this period made it difficult to recognize one’s Richard commanders in the field when large armies gathered together for extended periods, necessitating the development of heraldry as , but around

a symbolic language. THE PARLIAMENT OF THINGS the emancipation of animals, plants and things. What if we welcome all things into our Parliament, not centred around Men The reasoning of a fish? What claims would trees make, and what future would oil see for itself? The Parliament of Things designs a ritual, which will transform attendants into a mountain, forest, goldfish – you name it and will enable them to speak by means of the communication-techniques provided. Obaakofoo Mmu represents new Emaa Da , which is woven in narrow KENTE

In June 2016, New York–based artist Chloe Piene held a Familienaufstellung performance in Vienna, Austria.“FAMILY CONSTELLATION” is a form of therapy 19-06-2020 developed in the 1990s by the German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger with roots in existential psychology, Gestalt Dear Richard, psychology, and psychodynamic therapy. Piene invited people to play the roles of Sorry if my tone seems more practical than usual her real family members, both alive and but honestly, at the moment, a creation work of dead, including the artist Matthew Barney as her brother, and actress Petra Morse this level of commitment, as you propose, is very symbolizing democratic governance and of the National Theater in Vienna as her

demanding for me. I mean, I need time, energy and Akan textile art has important mythological and ceremonial significance, especially the strips by master weavers using a complex technique called “floating fabric” to achieve the unique designs. The names of patterns represent historical anecdotes associated with the oral tradition of the Akan. For example, pattern Man creativity and knowledge from experience. mother.

20200703 Pagina's Exploratorium.indd 6 03-07-20 11:43 Wayang (Javanese: “shadow”), a classical budget, because I cannot work alone in different Javanese puppet drama that uses the shadows thrown by puppets manipulated by rods plots and themes that are so far from my figure and against a translucent screen lit from from my poetic. behind. Developed before the 10th century, the form had origins in the thalubomalata, the leather puppets of southern India. In any case, I think that the most important thing WAYANG GOLEK uses a set of 60–70 puppets, which do not always portray specific for me is to plan a live performance in the future. characters, but stock types, the puppets This is certainly more interesting for my work and thus being interchangeable. also for yours. What do you think about it? I wait for your point of view. Sincerely Mattia

Today the SANDAE MASKED PLAY is performed by villagers in Korea. Masks cover either the whole head or the face and are made from paper or gourds or, occasionally, are carved from wood. They are boldly painted to represent the stock characters of the play: monks, shaman, noblemen, young dancing girl, and others, staging satiric dialogue plays that hold officialdom up to ridicule. the action of play easy to understand. and dialogue in kyōgen are typically very exaggerated, making Jirō kaja (second servant), and the master (shujin). Movements Tarō kaja (main servant, literally “firstborn son + servant”), roles, which are often stock characters. Notable ones include often about 10 minutes and contain only two or three Japanese comic theater. Kyōgen plays are invariably brief – KYŌGEN (“mad words” or “wild speech”) is a form of traditional 20-06-2020

Dear Mattia,

between gods, Thanks for you mail… To be honest, I don’t know. I am not the person to decide on a performance at the vernissage and I have no clue about the budgets... We can keep it in this stage of concept and find out all of this later. I would definitely like to continue and to create the plots with you, design the fans and stage the performances! AN INTERMEDIARY ROLE For now, let me create a fundament for this, based on all the sources I collected. As you might know, I run my own imaginary museum for graphic design, called The Palace of Typographic Masonry, which aim is to make a plea for the splendour and variety of the graphic languages. It is a place where the intrinsic values of graphic design can be stored and cherished, a collective building that is entirely devoted to the

During the 17th century, Turkish shadow theatre spread along the northern shores of Africa. The “storytellers with their picture boxes” and little glove puppets have transformed the very notion of puppet through richness of its forms and functions. The distinction is often made between the sacred and profane when it comes to African puppets. They often play ancestors and men caught in the hardships of existence. On other hand many puppets have been used to entertain the public, thus mingling with the profane. craft’s abundance, poetry and digressions.

Indian theatre is one of the most ancient forms of Asian theatre and it features a I would like to create a new addition to this detailed textual, sculptural, and dramatic building, which I will call ‘The Unfolding effects. An appreciation for the stagecraft and classic SANSKRIT DRAMA was seen as an Arch of Forging Fantasy’, in the Department of essential part of a sophisticated world Play, dedicated to the fanning out connections view, by the end of the seventh century. Its drama is regarded as the highest between social codes, imaginative techniques, achievement of Sanskrit literature.It stock characters, play, etc. Since these are the used stock characters, such as the hero (nayaka), heroine (nayika), or clown ingredients to create ‘magic circles’, to design the (vidusaka). possibilities to be able to safely empathize, to create social souplesse. I just read in Silvio Lorusso’s book ‘Entreprecariat’ (2019): “In actual fact, real flexibility is in itself a product of stability: bushes bend in the wind precisely because their roots are sunk firmly in the earth.” We should invest in a safe and inviting common ground. PUNCH AND JUDY is a traditional puppet show featuring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy. As the governor of The Palace of Typographic The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction Masonry I will write a short introduction to this between two characters, most typically Mr. collection and invite everyone to admire and Punch and one other character who usually falls victim to Punch’s slapstick. The study it. Stage one of this fascinating journey of cast is similar to that of a soap opera the Exploratorium ends here, and I will design a or a folk tale: the principal characters must appear, but the lesser characters silkscreened poster to share the results of this path. are included at the discretion of the I hope we will continue, but for now I will say performer. New characters may be added and older characters dropped as the tradition goodbye, changes. Richard

20200703 Pagina's Exploratorium.indd 7 03-07-20 11:43 20200703 Pagina's Exploratorium.indd 8 03-07-20 11:43 Welcome to the Department of Play, In Japan, folding fans are seen as where we will dwell on ‘The Unfolding auspicious objects that symbolize Arch of Forging Fantasy’. As you know, happiness, as they expand when opened, ‘play’ is an activity, outside of unfolding the future possibilities. ordinary daily activities, in which one In ‘The Unfolding Arch of Forging or more humans (and even non-humans) Fantasy’ a surprising collection has can participate, as entertainment been brought together. These are or ritual, with often an uncertain objects from different worlds, because outcome. what do codes, fans and theater have in common? More than you think: this In his designs, the graphic designer story begins with the connections can form an inviting magical circle between the ceremonial fans and the that you want to step into to coded signals, between the masked game participate, to think along and join and the portable status markers and the discussion about issues of all between the language of the pattern kinds. In this section of The Palace and the moving alphabets, the fans of Typographic Masonry, the designers’ as canvas and the inviting stock ability to titillate and manipulate characters. the viewer’s perceptions and responses seamlessly flows into his or her These are all instruments of a engagement in a form of living culture fantastic orchestra that only needs – regardless of how serious this a signal to start playing together. game’s stakes are. “Play brings,” said Johan Huizinga in Homo Ludens (1938), “into an imperfect Let’s take a look at “The Unfolding world, into the confusion of life, Arch of Forging Fantasy.” This is a temporary, limited perfection.” inspired by the book ‘The Grammar of In the space of this interplay, the Fantasy’ (1973) by Gianni Rodari, an associative chain reactions begin from Italian writer and journalist, best which alternatives to the status quo known for his children’s books. He can arise. This is in sharp contrast argues that stories lie precisely in to what Huizinga calls ‘cheating’, a the connections between objects or childishness that with “the easily concepts that belong to completely satisfied but never saturated need different worlds, and seemingly for banal scattering, the longing have nothing to do with each for gross sensation and the desire other. He therefore calls for being for mass display” actually leads to adventurous and finding connections social rigidity. We recognize this in apparently absurd combinations. To cheating all too well in the current use experience, memory, fantasy and inflexibility in areas of public the unconscious to cause unexpected, opinion. We miss the ‘lucidity’ as a associative chain reactions. “Reality necessary condition for the production can be entered through the main door, of culture. or it can be slipped into through a window, which is much more fun” Therefore ‘The Unfolding Arch of Forging Fantasy’ is a plea to design According to Rodari, schools have the conditions for playing together, traditionally degraded the imagination, and to give the idealized seriousness which means that memory and of the ritual, imagination and play ‘unshakable’ knowledge can be valued a sustainable place within our much higher. After all, children are society. With the 36 objects and being prepared to take a place in concepts collected here, The Palace of a fully measurable and inescapably Typographic Masonry hopes to ignite preprogrammed world in which we no the fire of imagination that has not longer have to imagine. As Naomi Klein yet been extinguished: the inviting put it in a recent interview, “Perhaps magic circle is a value for survival. one of the most significant effects of the neoliberal era is the current lack of imagination, creating the idea that the status quo is inevitable - the same thing Margaret Thatcher wanted to achieve with her slogan ‘There is no a l t e r n a t i v e !’.”

20200703 Pagina's Exploratorium.indd 9 03-07-20 11:43