Luigi Serafini

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For the Roman Catholic cardinal and bishop, see Luigi Serafini (bishop).

Luigi Serafini (born in Rome, 4 August 1949) is an Italian artist, architect and designer. He is best known for creating the Codex Seraphinianus, an illustrated encyclopedia of imaginary things in a constructed language. This work was published in 1981 by Franco Maria Ricci, out of Milan, and of interest and inspiration to others.

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[edit] Life and works

During the 1980s Serafini worked as an architect and designer in Milan. His objects were often defined by a certain metalanguage aptitude, like the chairs Santa and Suspiral or the lamps and the glass for Artemide. He has created scenery, lighting and costumes for the ballet "The Jazz Calendar" by Frederick Ashton at Teatro Alla Scala and worked also for the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. He has done set designs for RAI, television acronyms/logos in computer graphics. He worked with Federico Fellini on La voce della luna, for which he developed early designs.

LUNA PAC SERAFINI arch

He has a laboratory of ceramics in Umbria, and continues to give touring personal exhibitions, especially in Holland, and participate in art collectives. In 2003 he completed a polychrome bronze sculpture, "Carpe Diem" and other bas-reliefs for one of the Naples subway stations (Mater Dei).

In May 2007, he held an "ontological exhibition" Luna Pac in Milan at P.A.C. (the Pavilion of Contemporary Art (Milano)).[1] He occasionally gives interviews in Italian media and art publications.[2]

Serafini has been a Banff Centre visiting artist, and has exhibited at the Fondazione Mudima di Milano, the XIII Quadriennale, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna (National Gallery of Modern Art) in Rome, the Futurarium, and the Didael gallery.[3]

In July 2008, he completed a polychrome installation "Balançoires sans Frontières" (Altalene senza Frontiere) in Castasegna, Switzerland.[4]

[edit] Codex Seraphinianus

The Codex Seraphinianus was originally released as in a limited edition of 5000 artfully-bound copies in 1981. It has been republished on four occasions, first in a 1983 English language edition; then in English, Spanish, and French editions in the 1990s, each again limited to 5000 copies; and finally in a more widely printed 2006 edition.

The cover of Pulcinellopedia (piccola)

Many other people have been inspired by the work. Roland Barthes was interested in the Codex. In 1984 Italo Calvino wrote an essay on it, which can be found in Collezione di sabbia (Sand Collection) by Mondadori. The French choreographer Philippe Decouflé was inspired by it. Douglas Hofstadter wrote at some length about it.

Serafini does not comment on whether the language in the text is intelligible, though it uses a carefully-defined set of characters and numerals throughout.

[edit] Other works

In 1984 Serafini illustrated Pulcinellopedia (piccola), by P. Cetrulo (published by Longanesi), with a suite of pencil drawings about the Neapolitan masque of Pulcinella. It is more difficult to find than the Codex, and as of 2008 has been out of print for some time.

Other unpublished works and illustrations are reported to exist, but aside from the occasional exhibit of art (from clay figurines to plastic and polychrome sculpture to furniture and small installations), they are not available or publicly catalogued. Serafini began his own website at luigiserafini.com, but as of 2009 it is blank.

[edit] References

  1. ^ See Brian Davies's bio compilation at http://www.geocities.com/brianmdavies/serafini/index.htm
  2. ^ For instance:
  3. ^ (formerly at didael.it)
  4. ^ Balançoires sans Frontières - Castasegna, Val Bregaglia, CH

[edit] External links

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