A project by Compagnia dei Somari and La Seggiolina Blu 
from an idea of Klaus Saccardo and Soledad Rivas 

Carrousel is an installation of itinerant stories capable of transforming parks, squares and public spaces into suspended places. It consists of a carousel of hammocks, a corner full of stories dedicated to oral storytelling and a traveling playroom. 

The carrousel is a circle made up of 8 hammocks that resembles an ancient carousel, whose center is a shelf, also circular in shape, equipped with a careful selection of books and illustrated books,   freely accessible for all kind of audiences. The public space thus acquires the intimate dimension proper to the shared act of reading, in order to suspend time among the pages of a book. 

An handcrafted traveling toy library surrounds the installation, transforming the square into a meeting and sharing place, where families can rediscover the pleasure of playing together. The installation is activated by reading sessions animated by professional actors, where kids can discover the pleasure of listening to a story. 

The project is inspired by Bertrand Russell’s In praise of idleness: idleness is to be understood in its etimological Latin meaning, as the engine of civilization. The aim is to physically redefine public spaces through the centrality of idleness, culture, reading and play, liberating the activity of promoting a book from any pedagogical insistence or missionary vocation, by creating the most suitable conditions for a book to be rediscovered as a pleasant companion. Quoting Pennac: “the verb to read cannot stand the imperative grammatical mood”. 

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