Calendars

2020 / Walking

Walking can still reveal a different world, nearer to nature and our own human dimension. When we walk our bodies and minds perceive a multitude of elements around us that partake in a fluid, constantly changing reality. Perhaps this is why many new ideas are formed while trekking on a mountain or strolling down a road in our city, when our thoughts flow in unexpected directions and by intricate interactions give rise to new creative processes.

• 01-01-2019

2019 / The secret power of beauty

The fascination evoked by an object, a person or a landscape is direct, instinctive and immediate. However, the concept of beauty, itself, indefinable and ungraspable, continues to elude us. We cannot explain why something should fascinate or move us, and the profound mystery of what it is that attracts us remains unfathomable. The ancient Greeks to whom we owe the expression «beauty lies in the eye of the beholder» tried to determine the extent to which an observer's history, culture and experience influenced his or her final judgement: is this beautiful in itself or does it appeal to me simply because I am seeing it?

2018 / Mythomanias

What are the constituents of myth? One answer could be – ourselves. Our plans, imagination, admiration or fears, even techniques or technology. Contemporary myths, like all those before them, and in all civilisations, represent the polarisation of good and evil about something: a person or an object, a dream or a nightmare, an archetype or a fetish. This year we take a light-hearted look at some familiar and randomly chosen myths, discussing them in ways that may give cause for thought. Above all, what lies behind myth?

2017 / Time Machine

The lines that bind a story to its comprehension. We are immersed in a strange, elusive fluid called time: the place where all things come to pass, where stories commence, develop and terminate. Yet stories require time for another reason: to be told and understood. Before unravelling themselves and becoming persuasive some stories need time: for example, the timescale of an idea, a religion or a science. Other stories require much less time: anyone, for example, who has told a tale to an infant, can never forget that final triumphal look announcing “Now I understand”.

2016 / Words in art

Leonardo da Vinci once said that “poetry comes from the mind”. This quote has never been more true, since nowadays Art is seen as an artist's way of expressing his thoughts and feelings. However, as the Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran shrewdly observes, “Thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly”. Contemporary art is but a representation of today's philosophy, expressed in different ways and touching on various subjects. Once an author makes his art tangible, it is then turned into words by art critics, trying to find links between the meaning and the creator.

2015 / Rome: Mind-set

Trying to describe Rome is a difficult, if not impossible, feat. It is too complex and contradictory a city, charged with history and emotions, full of reminders of the past. Rome, in its entirety, is too much, and the job of deciphering it is even more arduous for those who live there and walk its streets every day.As we deeply respect this city, we wanted to do it justice by choosing intimate and subjective moments. The twelve months of the year and narrated by placing together six couples of opposite, but similar, concepts (Under/over, Inside/outside, Light/shade, Father/mother, Empty/full, Death/life) that keep attracting and repelling us, just like great love stories do.

2014 / Signs of Italian design

Many people talk about Italian design, Italian style and the “Made in Italy” trademark. But it's difficult to pinpoint what exactly makes this style unique, even for the Italians themselves. We've tried to find the answer by looking at Italy's history and present, its ideas and visions. For sure, the reasons behind its success can not be found in its raw materials, as with Scandinavian wood. Nor can it be found in technology, as with Japan's ordered and composed tech. It can't even be traced back to a single component; on the contrary, plurality is its strongpoint.

2013 / Timelessness

Our society already seems to lack the concept of time. One of the main causes of this is to be found in the new technologies, which invade everyday life. Nowadays we can communicate long-distance, read, find things out, purchase products and invest money basically whenever we want to. On the other hand, ideas, knowledge and works of art come from a timeless dimension where everything seems to lead back to the present. This conveys a fluid and discontinuous sense of the “factor of time”, which is strictly linked to our perception of physical space. The relativity of time has become common knowledge and if we see a rocket shoot through outer space we would see its equipment moving in slow motion.

2012 / Imagines

The abilities to look, imagine and dream have always belonged exclusively to man. Only we can create images, through which we have always tried to convey knowledge and emotions. As soon as people working with images try to analyse complex shapes, they are shocked by the substantial insufficiency of scientific theories and suppositions regarding visual perception. The great complexity of factors involved obviously makes it hard to precisely convey an image's intentions. The need to convey incontrovertible meanings is exactly what sparked the “invention” of writing, an essential tool in human evolution.

2011 / Keep me informed

Human beings have always wanted to know more things, but have an easier time finding them out. This is why we invented both verbal and visual languages: they help us learn from others and convey what we know. In a minutely interconnected world, crowded with signs and messages, communication requires an effort on everyone's part: those deciding on its contents, those designing its form, those sending it out and those receiving it. Having an unambiguous access to information can only be guaranteed by a type of design that puts man's needs first.