Lothar Meggendorfer in an unmissable cameo exhibition at MUSLI in Turin
The Piedmont institution dedicates an exhibition of rare nostalgia and philological research to the great German illustrator on the centenary of his death
If you think that 'interactivity' with books was born recently, you are mistaken, and you are mistaken because you have not yet visited the treasure trove of wonders that is the new Pop-App Museum in Turin, at the Fondazione Tancredi di Barolo. Here, animated books, through a collection that is both vast and astonishing at the same time, and which has its roots in the past two centuries and, in Italy, mainly thanks to the work of an enlightened publisher like Ulrico Hoepli, come to life in many ways, not only because of the elaborate papercraft skills, but because the creativity and poetic refinements of the many artists who have created their colourful artefacts here have a home that is a unicum of nostalgia, preservation, restoration and experimentation.
What's more, its book heritage of more than 1,500 items is nurtured and enhanced with interactive stations under the banner of the most sophisticated new technologies, capable of rendering to these volumes and artefacts all the inventive magic of their creators.
First and foremost the German illustrator Lothar Meggendorfer (1847-1925) to whom MUSLI, on the centenary of his death, is dedicating the exhibition 'Sempre Allegri bambini, Lothar Meggenndorfer e il libro animato in Italia tra Ottocento e Novecento' (Always Cheerful Children, Lothar Meggenndorfer and the Animated Book in Italy between the 19th and 20th Centuries) which, with its multimedia path, is a rare condensation of philological wisdom, poignant narration and contemporary contextualisation, and which has in its curator, and before that donor and collector, Pompeo Vagliani, President of the Tancredi di Barolo Foundation, the prime mover of this museum...
Professor Vagliani, at the opening of the exhibition, you have a splendid example of a book dedicated to theatre by Meggendorfer. Would you tell us what it is about?
The theatre is one of Meggendorfer's best known and most popular works worldwide; unfortunately it has never been published in Italy. It is certainly also an expensive book. here we have a splendid French edition. It is actually a prodigy from the point of view of design and inventiveness, but it is also a prodigy in terms of how it is preserved, because in fact all these wonderful books are fragile, they have to be cared for or they are lucky enough to be as perfect as this one, in which we have more than 100 characters represented, each one different from the other. And then there are details that add important poetic aspects to this perfection, which is one of the characteristics we want to enhance...
