Heritage Landscapes vol.3
Welcome to Heritage Landscapes, the new newsletter from Promemoria Group created to observe the contemporary heritage panorama. Twice a month we will share the most interesting news and the most innovative projects, investigating those archival stories that turn an object, a brand or an insight, into a legend.
Between architecture, design, fashion, food, technology. With no limit to our curiosity.
Between architecture, design, fashion, food, technology. With no limit to our curiosity.
1. Main Theme
The Pomological Watercolor Collection
In 1886, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiated a project capable of taking one's breath away: the commissioning of illustrations of 3,000 types of fruit. The goal is to facilitate the transition to an industrial, national type of agriculture. And there is only one way to do this in a time when photography has not yet been developed: watercolors.
Thus begins the Pomological Watercolor Collection, which will become one of the most stunning collections of botanical illustrations in the world.
Filmmaker Sebastian Ko, after taking the images (digitized and published in 2019), makes a video for Aeon. Pomological poignantly narrates the project and the 7,500 watercolors made primarily by women. Women like Deborah Griscom Passmore, who contributed more than 1,500 watercolors; or Mary Daisy Arnold, who would spend a 40-year career as a botanical illustrator.
Amid endless varieties of fruit, colors, faults, and documents about the lives of female illustrators, Pomological succeeds in telling the historical significance of the act of initiating such a project, and its incredible aesthetic power.
2. Spotlights. Traces of projects to keep an eye on
In 1954, Moncler's legendary Karakorum down jacket was designed. First worn by Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli during the legendary ascent of K2, today it is a unique garment. Moncler has celebrated it with RE/ICONS, the project with which the brand annually reinterprets archival icons by reconnecting past and present.
b. An exhibition for “Appassionarsi, incontrarsi, abbandonarsi, cercarsi”. 50 Years for the Centro Studi of the Teatro Stabile di Torino
In Turin, until Feb. 29, there is an exhibition under the arcades of Piazza San Carlo that chronicles the incredible material collected by the Centro Studi del Teatro Stabile di Torino: four paths that investigate the actions through which the bodies of actors, actresses and characters enter into relationship with the audience.
We at Promemoria Group collaborated on the collection and organization of the Centro Studi del Teatro Stabile's archive.
We at Promemoria Group collaborated on the collection and organization of the Centro Studi del Teatro Stabile's archive.
In 2023 Porsche celebrated its 75th birthday. It did so in style, publishing a book and creating a website capable of telling from multiple perspectives the adventure of a man and his team who thought they knew exactly what sports cars should look like. And they were right. It's all there: a prologue, a heritage wall telling the story, future perspectives, historical photographs.
Credits: Sebastian Ko & Aeon Video; Moncler; Centro Studi del Teatro Stabile di Torino; Porsche.
3. Memory Lane. Things that happen, and we want to remember
Archivissima. "La polvere del mondo".
About Archivissima (the Festival of Archives conceived by Promemoria Group) we could talk a lot. Of the 2023 edition, declined on the theme of Carnet de Voyage, we would like to mention “La polvere del mondo”, a booklet made of stories, ideas, testimonies, poems, diaries dedicated to travel and sent by the archives that took part in Archivissima23. You can find 12 of them, a path between paths, of which to somehow keep a clear record.