Wunderkammer·Wonder room Where art and young children come together Interactive exhibits by Drammatico Vegetale by Ezio Antonelli, Piero Fenati, Elvira Mascanzoni production Drammatico Vegetale / Ravenna Teatro Glitterbird, Art for the very young Isa da Procida Association / Naples

Rooms I. The snake with ears II. The wind which sings/runs through the sky III. Alice’s mirror IV. The eyes which listen to the water V. The fantastic wood Each exhibit is a place that a child can go into, driven by his natural curiosity of finding out about the surrounding world and discovering its secrets: an aesthetic, creative dimension which opens and presents itself to the child who watches, listens, touches and plays. The child chooses to be part of the experience himself: by interacting with the work, he puts his own body into play, as well as his growing ability to interpret the world. The adult’s presence is secondary in this situation: an attentive observer who doesn’t get in the way. If need be, he makes suggestions or helps. The adult doesn’t take control of the game, he assists only when necessary. The work can be set up within school buildings or a designated exhibition space. Few rules are needed for it to work effectively: you just need to monitor how many children are participating as each of the rooms you “enter” has a limit with regards to the number of children within it at any given time. I. The snake with ears

Ravenna - exhibition La Comunità Educante - Public Gardens and Piazza San Francesco - May 2005

A spider web of flexible pipes is lain out in the designated area. The child who enters the room, (or square, grassed area…) follows the pipes, moving them, climbing over them and becoming the protagonist of a moving painting. The zone is like a coloured labyrinth which presents itself to the child’s assisted or spontaneous play.

At the ends of the pipes, the mouths made out of funnels, or “dragon heads” allow for the discovery and exchange of vocal communication. A standard telephone, whose communication components are usually hidden (wires, magnetic waves, optic impulses) is substituted by physical evidence in the form of pipes which transport and contort the voice into spirals. II. The wind which sings/runs through the sky

Ravenna - exhibition La Comunità Educante - Rasponi nursery - May/June 2005 It starts off with a bike ride, to discover wind, energy which moves, which you don’t run into, but which overtakes you and ruffles your hair. The more you pedal, the more it happens, arousing a world suspended by invisible wires, delicate flying feathers which paint the air. Then you blow, with your mouth, your hands and feet, energy in exchange for energy. By going through cracks in soft walls you curiously enter, sucked into the belly of a flexible world of lightweight shadows. With our noses up we follow the subtle movements brought on by the air and the rushing of breathing and sounds: the twittering of bird whistles, colourful movement that we push out of souls made of clay. III. Alice’s mirror

Ravenna - exhibition La Comunità Educante - Garibaldi Nursery School - May/June 2005 A house made of mirrors, a little strange, bigger inside than out. Whoever dares to enter this double, multiplied world without an apparent end, discovers that they aren’t falling

but actually flying through a fantasy land. Don’t be scared! You’re reflection will always be with you. And all around, you can see far off spaces, lands, water, plants and animals…and mysterious things, which, when you move, suddenly appear before you, where before they weren’t; or they disappear. At the crossroads of possible contradictory worlds, the game puts reality and fantasy on trial. The body and the eyes question themselves and interact trying to find out the real truth. IV. The eyes which listen to the water

Naples – PAN, Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli - May 2006 Water speaks to us as it passes through our fingers, you just need to know how to listen to it. Visible, audible reverberation accompanies the fast, fleeting game of pearl drops which fall into reflecting liquids, as short lived as a quick glance. Tears gush out of two mirror eye fountains. But they are tears of joy. Even with our feet we whisper words to be heard with our eyes in a world of liquid mirrors. V. The fantastic wood

Naples – PAN, Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli - May 2006 Projected images draw trees over a forest of lightweight, suspended, white bands. Moving with the breeze of our passing, these vertical branches open up , exposing their soft insides, revealing warm lights of nests with birds that sing. Nearby we discover instruments capable of mimicking them. A fantastic wood comes to life. We stop the creaking of our footsteps to listen to the echo made by our sounds. They attract those of the wood and its inhabitants, both ancient and new.

The interactive exhibits Project, stops, preceding exhibits Wunderkammer, or Wonder room by the Compagnia Drammatico Vegetale, is composed of five interactive exhibits created for young children. It’s part of a series of exhibitions which included in the programme « Glitterbird, Art for the very young ». The programme has brought six European countries together (Norway – leader -, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, France, Italy) since 2003 to encourage the creation of aesthetic events dedicated to young children. The exhibit stops which make up the European phase of the programme are as follows: Budapest – meeting and workshop 27 – 29 October 2005 Naples – 15-21 May 2006, PAN – Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli Parisi – 10-14 October 2006, Mairie du IVᵉ – Salle des fêtes Intermediate stops Ravenna – May 2005, in schools, public gardens, piazza San Francesco –as part of the Ravenna Council/ Education Department exhibition « La Comunità Educante ». Ravenna – from 13 March to 2 April 2006, Urban Center, Via Cavour – ex-San Domenico church. Preceding exhibits of Drammatico Vegetale Materie diSegni August-September 1996 Ferrara Padiglione arte Contemporanea Chroma September 1997 Ferrara Estate Bambini-Isola del tesoro Materie diSegni August 1998 Cervia Arrivano dal mare Festival Materie diSegni June 1998 Bagnacavallo Colpi di scena Festival Mondi sonori August-September 1998 Ferrara Estate Bambini-Isola del tesoro Chroma September-October 1998 Rovigo Ospedale Civile e scuole elementari Vibrazioni November-December 1998 Ferrara Teatro Comunale Materie diSegni January 1999 Calderaia di Reno Sala civica Materie diSegni February-March 1999 Parma Stagione Teatro ragazzi Teatro al Parco Tappeto sonoro May 1999 Prato Pecci Museum, Contemporanea Festival Materie diSegni May 1999 Campobasso Stagione teatro ragazzi Palazzo Falcione Materie diSegni September 2000 Arcore Arte in gioco La via dei suoni December 2003 Milano Palazzo Bagatti Valsecchi La via dei suoni May 2004 Zamora (Spain) Las Acenas de Cabalanes

Drammatico Vegetale – a brief curriculum vitae In 1991, the Compagnia Drammatico Vegetale, together with Teatro delle Albe, founded Ravenna Teatro, recognized as a Permanent Theatrical Production, Promotion and Research Entity - a one of its kind in Emilia Romagna.

The Company has been part of youth theatre since 1974. It has participated in the most important international theatre festivals: Charleville-Mézières, Paris, Toulouse, Madrid, Zamora, Jerusalem, Zagreb, Anversa, Strasburg and Bliesko Biala. The Drammatico Vegetale organises Youth Theatre courses for the city of Ravenna and the province of Ferrarra, as well as theatrical activities including workshops and crossover activities, particularly at “VulKano”, in San Bartolo of Ravenna where the youth theatre studio is located.

Background Information

Wunderkammern (Wonder rooms, Cabinets des merveilles) were a common phenomenon of the 16th century, whose roots spread during medieval times and lived on until the 18th century.

Consecrated places of all kinds of wonder were host to rare, unusual, extraordinary or exotic objects which, by nature aroused admiration and astonishment in the spectator.

The origins of modern museums come from Wonder rooms or Theatres of nature and art, which contrasted natural prodigies with man made objects which were the result of original or secret techniques.

We have based our work on these concepts, returning to the origins of the museum experience as one of a pure progression of discoveries and emotions, somewhere between observing and playing, regaining the original, “naïve” pleasure of surprise and exploration: access is created in a completely natural way for the basic needs of our tiny spectators.

A concept of artists’ objects which express an appreciation for keeping, collecting, and assembling things with the aim of creating wonder and emotion, surprise and amazement directly or unconsciously descends from the Wunderkammern tradition.

Modern artists also practice new assembly techniques which enhance the pleasure of digression from real to other possible worlds in an aesthetic way. It’s sometimes ironic, very similar to a game. From Arcimboldo we can trace a path which leads to Dada and the surrealists, to Duchamp in particular, but above all the caskets of Joseph Cornell and the collages of Kurt Schwitters, then lastly Rebecca Horn or Daniel Spoerri.

This passion for assemblage and collecting, a crossover between conjured up and artificially rewritten nature, and art, follows the path of metaphor and dream in a type of game. It has become stimulating and an example for us, eventually translated intentionally into “elementary” forms, the reorganisation of nature through artificial means, dedicated to very young children.

Among the various sources which inspired us to create our Wunderkammern, we can name:

Athanasius Kircher, an eclectic Jesuit from the 16th century, a character of vast knowledge who studied various topics, from optics to music, plumbing to magnetism, linguistics to Egyptology and the inventor of the first “Optical Illusion Theatre”.

Lewis Carroll who, with his « Alice through the mirror», invites us to go beyond that limit, on a search for a new parallel world.

The philosopher and mathematician Pythagoris, with his sphere harmony. That is, the harmonic music created by celestial bodies that rotate.

The American artist Alexander Calder, with his “mobiles”, aerial sculptures which can appear to be like celestial bodies or the flight paths of birds.

The Italian-Argentinean artist Lucio Fontana, when he cuts the canvas of his painting and invites us to follow him in his special and intellectual search.

Wunderkammer, Wonder room by Piero Fenati, Elvira Mascanzoni, Ezio Antonelli Organization and Promotion Marie-Claude Gouy, William Rossano, Sara Maioli Drammatico Vegetale Registered administration office Ravenna Teatro, Teatro Stabile d’Innovazione Teatro Rasi, Via Roma, 39 – 48100 Ravenna t. 0544 36239 f. 0544 33303 e-mail info@drammaticovegetale.com