Vesper No. 6 | Magic | Spring-Summer 2022
Michel Carlana
Wunderkammer.
A Room and
Some Real Illusions
Wunderkammer, literally
‘room of wonders’ or ‘cabinet of curiosities’, is a
term usually used to indicate the space in a residence dedicated to the collection
of artifacts and rare specimens. Wunderkammer is, first of all, a
concept of place. A vast and articulated device to understand and exhibit
reality and, last but not least, to enchant the observing public.
The transposition of the meaning of the term Wunderkammer,
a ‘domestic’ term to a certain extent, if amplified in meaning and
applied to a different context, transforms what is usually ordinary into what
is not: a small and pleasing prestigious item; a game, a kind of theatrical
enchantment by a magician.
The Music School of Bressanone is more of an urban
than architectural project, it is a work that tries to deepen the meanings of
the words ‘room’ and ‘void’ and tries to rewrite the
way in which we observe our surroundings. Wunderkammer is, in this school, a moment of abstraction (and, in
some cases, of estrangement) granted to those who walk around the city and
revealed to those who look out from the many gates – air-conditioned or
not – of the building. A different way of looking at our surroundings, a
small and childlike illusion.
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