Objects are enigmas

My version of Domus magazine will be dedicated to objects and their meanings. The thought behind it is that ever since we began conceiving objects in our mind, it has been our predisposition as human beings to attribute all kinds of meanings to them. We are the only animal walking the earth able to imagine and build objects. At the same time, we are damnably inclined to keep making more – always diverse and possibly always better. We are different from other animals because we are naked, pronouncedly social in spirit, and equipped with hands that can give physical shape to our great imagination. Objects activate relations. They have an inside.

They can be seen from up close or from far away. They can be silent or noisy, bare or dressed, conservative or rebellious. They can console or offend, seduce or abandon, remind us or make us forget. They can create logics or chaos, be unique or all the same. We show them and hide them; we choose them and throw them away. Objects are enigmas that life places before our eyes. Thinking about objects and their meanings is a challenge by which we can see the world in a new perspective. We especially need to think about them to determine why some are kept and others are thrown away. For this difficult task we use our imagination, for it has allowed us to construct much and attribute meaning to all objects, whether utilitarian or symbolic. Imagination is guided by the meaning we give to life, or – if it helps to make the concept clearer ­– by the big lines according to which we take everyday decisions.