Codex Seraphinianus

Codex Seraphinianus: Indexing surrealism.

Countless are the paintings, writings and other artistic human manifestations, that depict imaginary worlds. Maybe for the longing of the humans to scape to other reality or just for the sake of let their own oneirisims fly. Whichever the case the Codex Seraphnius would be the encyclopedia of one of these imaginary worlds.

Plants that grow in the shape of a chair and water themselves, a couple that become an alligator while they are having sex, fishes with a fake human face and snakes that can take the place of your shoes laces are just some of the pictures that you can find in this enigmatic book that some have catalogued as the weirdest book in the world.

Within the 300 pages of this book/portable gallery the author tries not to explain the reality of this exotic world but to foster the imagination and sense of amazement of the one that has the fortune of having this work of art in their hands. This book does not only contains pictures the explanation of the contents of the book is given in this strange and intelligible language.

Luigi Serafini, author of the book, worked for more than two years to finish his work, Serafini is an architect that also worked in illustration sculpture and design and collaborated with prominent figures of the cultural scene in Europe, he even offered some of his illustrations to Federico Fellini for his last movie.

Serafini has uttered that one of the purposes of the book is to face the reader with something incomprehensible like when a little boy thumb through a book or magazine and he can’t even read, the explanation of the contents don’t say anything yet there they are, stimulating the mind, stirring the curiosity, pushing the observer to think, to imagine, to wonder.

You don’t have to like art or reading to like this piece of art, the Codex Seraphinianus is as hard to understand as to describe, so if you decide to take a better and closer look to it just do it for the sake of giving your brain and imagination a walk through paradise, let it’s tendency to phenomenology foster your will to question your surroundings.

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