Goal and Target
Through the publication of 4 volumes, this exhibit aims to enhance the great work of collecting, transcribing and translating fairy tales of non-European peoples, carried out by the Xaverian Missionaries.
The goal of the project is to bring traditional fairy tales to the knowledge of the general public, as to ensure that great human values imbued with experience and tradition can inspire new Western generations.
Each story is accompanied by an illustration, which is important for the reader as to get closer to the styles and symbols of a distant world.
The goal of the project is to bring traditional fairy tales to the knowledge of the general public, as to ensure that great human values imbued with experience and tradition can inspire new Western generations.
Each story is accompanied by an illustration, which is important for the reader as to get closer to the styles and symbols of a distant world.
The advice of the Rishi
“There was a man who answered the name of Progiapoti, that is “butterfly.” He was held in high esteem by everyone, for he was considered a saint, or a Rishi, a teacher.
One day, three individuals seeking a word of wisdom appeared before him: the first was a god, the other a man, and the third was a devil.
Progiapoti asked:
— What do you want?
The three answered together:
— Good advice for life…”
One day, three individuals seeking a word of wisdom appeared before him: the first was a god, the other a man, and the third was a devil.
Progiapoti asked:
— What do you want?
The three answered together:
— Good advice for life…”
Typical minangkabau house model
The Cuspids of the Minangkabau houses are buffalo horns, in memory of the legend that saw the victorious Minangkabau through a clash between two buffaloes of opposite factions.
Human Richness
Everything we have is the result of what we have thought
The value of a person is in what that person strongly desires to achieve. The dream belongs to those who desire to fly: to always and everywhere feel out of place, without roots, and to be at ease in the legendary countries built by imagination.
The Weeping Willow
Water Pipe
Called “shui yan dai” in Chinese with cloisonné decoration on the shells and auspicious engravings along the mouthpiece.
The pipe was not only important for its functionality. It was an object of artistic and cultural care, and it had to show something more. In addition to the more or less noble materials, it had to possess and release an aesthetic sight, it had to contain a message, the reproduction of a poem, a wish, a landscape, a scene from everyday life, the decorative objects common to Chinese imagination and art such as flowers, birds, etc. and the base lent itself to these purposes.
Objects of current use, made with techniques and materials such as to strike the imagination of Westerners not only for their decorations, constituted a large part of the exports intended to satisfy curiosity, that was not only aesthetic but also of an ethnographic nature.
The pipe was not only important for its functionality. It was an object of artistic and cultural care, and it had to show something more. In addition to the more or less noble materials, it had to possess and release an aesthetic sight, it had to contain a message, the reproduction of a poem, a wish, a landscape, a scene from everyday life, the decorative objects common to Chinese imagination and art such as flowers, birds, etc. and the base lent itself to these purposes.
Objects of current use, made with techniques and materials such as to strike the imagination of Westerners not only for their decorations, constituted a large part of the exports intended to satisfy curiosity, that was not only aesthetic but also of an ethnographic nature.
