In the world of furnishings and design, opportunities to talk about creativity are frequent. And some of them manage to be radically different than all the others. As in the case of the lecture/performance organized by ONIRO Group on 12 January at Teatro Belloni in Barlassina, in the heart of Brianza, the world’s smallest opera house.
On a stage set up with a few pieces of furniture, an armchair and many books, the writer Alessandro Baricco acted as a special guide, talking about five books in which the dream is the protagonist, and reading various excerpts: Dracula by Bram Stoker, Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges (from which he chose the story Funes the Memorious), The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (also with a quotation from The Trial), The House of the Sleeping Beauties by Yasunari Kawabata, and his own Oceano Mare.
All these titles are part of the Biblioteca del Sogno, the first project produced by ONIRO Lab, the creative workshop of ONIRO Group, the company behind various luxury interior design brands: Jumbo Collection, Roberto Cavalli Home Interiors, Gianfranco FerrĂ© Home, JCP Universe, Etro Home Interiors. The collection of volumes, containing over 250 titles (the number is constantly growing) is open to the public, and covers various categories of books that narrate the world of dreams from multiple perspectives. Classics of psychology by Freud and Jung meet modern theories of the neurosciences, works in prose and poetry that describe nocturnal dreams and daydreams. There are also graphic novels and comics, and books about artists, photographers and designers who have taken inspiration from the world of dreams to make their works.Â
“Baricco is simply the best possible narrator,” says Livio Ballabio, creative director of ONIRO Group. – “It came naturally to entrust him with the illustration of a powerful, profound theme such as that of dreams.”
Before the writer took the stage, the young pianist Federica Tremolada performed compositions by Claude Debussy, selected for their dreamy atmosphere. The intense event was the first appointment organized by Voce al Sogno, the multifaceted editorial project invented by ONIRO Lab; an invitation to come to terms with various visions of the dream world in our culture, through a series of spotlight encounters.
