Anima Mundi- The Carousel of Life – art show

“A exhibition between Art and Life – says curator Beatrice Mosca – where the invited artists express a completely original form of expression. Sculptors, painters, artisans, glassmakers, cabinetmakers, mask makers, in their works, matter and soul merge, transforming and returning to themselves. Life and art intertwine and exchange steps, like in a continuous dance, now one creates the artwork, now another shapes reality in the invisible forms of the cosmos. The physical world becomes the enigma to unveil, representation transcends it to investigate its eternal secret.”

Anima mundi, the soul of the world, is an expression that can be traced back to ancient Eastern philosophies, animistic religions, and a polytheism where the deities are distant emanations of the spirit. Our culture reserves an important place for reflection on the concept of the soul of the world, from the origins of Western thought to modern times. Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE), in his dialogue Timaeus, which discusses the structure of existence, explains the origin of the cosmos through the work of the Demiurge who shapes and orders a pure chaotic matter in the image and likeness of the world of ideas. Plato believes that the Demiurge has infused every visible form with a soul, like a spark that gives life and energy to lifeless things. The soul of the world, in its simplest and most immediate sense, means the world infused with soul: life in nature, in humans, and in what they create. This concept, originating from Plato’s dialogue, begins its long journey in our culture. The Stoic philosophers (Chrysippus 276 BCE–204 BCE, Seneca 4 BCE–65 CE, Marcus Aurelius 121–180 CE, to name a few) identified God with the world and conceived of this union as an “immortal animal,” rational, perfect, intelligent, and blissful, attributing an even more universal characteristic to the soul of the world than Plato. However, it was with Plotinus (204 CE–270 CE) that the soul of the world would receive its most organic definition, influencing Renaissance culture up to the great German Romanticism. According to Plotinus, the soul of the world is the second emanation of the One or God and proceeds from the Intellect, which is the first emanation. Therefore, it maintains a close relationship between the ideas of the intellect and the lower things, abstract concepts and material reality. In contrast to the mechanistic conception of the world, which claimed that organic forms were the result of the combination of several parts that coincidentally came together and added up – theories that found their most important interpreter in Democritus (460 BCE–370 BCE) in Greek philosophy – Plotinus, the most prominent figure of Neoplatonism, believed that organisms were not a random agglomeration of parts, but that their formation depended on a unified intelligent principle: the very principle from which plants, animals, and humans take shape. The soul of the world is a unified, universal foundation that gives life and movement to the world-reality: death lies in wait in things when they are believed to be lifeless, without soul, matter among inert matters.

Stefano Zecchi

The world is a vast, living organism, from which differences arise, bound together by a universal soul—the soul of the world. Everything is in perpetual rotation, and in the carousel of life, opposites chase each other, pursue one another, sometimes one prevailing over the other, but never nullifying or eliminating each other. Everything ends, everything begins anew. And these differences generate energy and creativity within the ever-turning kaleidoscope, propelled by the soul of the world. 

Stefano Zecchi

Koen Vanmechelen is one of the world’s most renowned multidisciplinary artists. Painter, sculptor, performer, and eclectic Belgian figure whose interests range from anthropology to bioethics, human rights to bio-genetics, he focuses his research on the concepts of hybridization (of animal and plant species) and contamination (of expressive techniques and materials). His fantastical artistic creatures were exhibited in 2022 at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, alongside works by Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. The monumental work “Carousel of Life – La Giostra della Vita,” created in collaboration with Berengo Studio, incorporating Venetian glass, bronze, gold leaf, photographic prints, Venetian mirrors, wood, fabrics, steel, neon, and lights, almost becomes a symbol of the exhibition.

“The spinning carousels,” writes Koen Vanmechelen, “create a sense of perpetual motion that symbolizes the balance of biocultural diversity in the world. This installation celebrates the diversity and creativity of life, reminding us that life is constantly evolving and that we can achieve extraordinary things when we come together to celebrate our differences.”

Sebastian Brajkovic  is an accomplished cabinetmaker, sculptor, and painter, even before becoming a designer. His work resides in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. With a Dutch-Indonesian mother and a Croatian-Italian father, he has been drawn to rotating forms and constant contradictions since childhood.

“When I am attracted to function, I consider the deconstruction of that function. When I convey movement, it is best explained through stillness. The juxtapositions reveal each other’s aspects.”

Thanks to Berengo Studio, the artist showcases a glass and light artwork titled “Forme Informe,” which rotates in the carousel room. The glass recalls how rays of light traverse the sky, break, and reassemble, transforming and shaping archetypal forms into new geometries, almost molding matter into the invisible geometries of the universe.

Sebastian Brajkovic  is an accomplished cabinetmaker, sculptor, and painter, even before becoming a designer. His work resides in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. With a Dutch-Indonesian mother and a Croatian-Italian father, he has been drawn to rotating forms and constant contradictions since childhood.

“When I am attracted to function, I consider the deconstruction of that function. When I convey movement, it is best explained through stillness. The juxtapositions reveal each other’s aspects.”

Thanks to Berengo Studio, the artist showcases a glass and light artwork titled “Forme Informe,” which rotates in the carousel room. The glass recalls how rays of light traverse the sky, break, and reassemble, transforming and shaping archetypal forms into new geometries, almost molding matter into the invisible geometries of the universe.

Sergio Boldrin is a master painter and mask maker with two renowned workshops in Venice, which he manages with his brother Massimo. The workshops are also famous for their collaboration with theater and cinema, particularly for creating masks for Stanley Kubrick’s film “Eyes Wide Shut.” Boldrin has exhibited his creations in Italy and internationally, in cities like London, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles. His presence in the exhibition highlights the significance of craftsmanship and ancient professions in our modern era. Sergio Boldrin’s carousels bring to life the contrasts of nature and life through universal symbolic images, such as “Angels Demons,” “Sun Moon,” “Life Death,” and “Health Illness.” These works are crafted from raw materials like clay, plaster, papier-mâché, gold, and oil paint.

“One day the Master said: I will tell you the story of this marvelous beauty. The Apprentice replied: Why do you speak in a low voice? The Master answered: Because the craft of Master artisans is passed down from father to son, keeping the alchemy of their art undisclosed. And the secret of creating objects, each one unique and unrepeatable.” Like the mystery and alchemy of the created works.