The “Wunderkammer” is the crowded room of wonders, where exist other possible forms of life, new animal beings, where the animal world merges into the plant world.
Centuries ago Medieval bestiaries contained detailed descriptions and illustrations of native species of western Europe, exotic animals and imaginary animals, and the Medieval people didn’t think if these beasts existed but focused on the belief in the importance of the Christian morals these creatures represented and that the importance of the moral didn’t change regardless if the animal existed or not. With this introduction, it’s clear that the work “Bestiario” by Giordano Rizzardi doesn’t have Christian morals or biblical references but is a journey through new terrestrial and marine creatures.
These imaginary creatures “insects, butterflies, birds and fishes with branches of trees, horned-armored fishes, lethal snakes with wings…..” bring us in a parallel world where we can formulate hypotheses about a new involution, evolution or revolution. This is the perfect time to change our mind, get out from the well-know patterns and create our perfect, alternative, non-sense environment. Nowadays our mind is characterized to rationality and this goes to the disadvantage of intuition; using imagination and creativity we can apply rational knowledge out of the common logic, hence create a world constantly in balance between real and abstract. In its rooms, Giordano Rizzardi seems to reinvent the world, as magical and mysterious is hidden therein. At the center of each “wunderkammer” there is a sphere, a globe, able to enclose forms of life, but at the same time ready to release other. The observer is wondering if there is another world, there are other forms of life or if is the man who reflects these physical changes, not a purely physical change but a transformation of the ego; a change much more profound and most tearing of a physical metamorphosis. Man exposed in its precariousness and vulnerability is no longer able to fulfill his duties.
