From Symbol to Constellation: Practices for Reading the Everyday

Coordinated by Marta Perroni, Federica Cardosi, Raffaella Pelliccia (Children’s Museum Pompei) and Elena Minarelli and Michela Perrotta (Peggy Guggenheim Collection)

Inspired by Victor Brauner’s The Surrealist, in which the artist identifies with the “Magician” tarot archetype, this workshop sparks a trans-historical dialogue between the modern archetypes of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the apotropaic iconography of the Children’s Museum Pompeii. Here, the symbol is explored as both a magical tool and a cultural convention, evolving from a static artifact into an active medium. Through a process of physical deconstruction and reconstruction, participants are invited to dismantle the conventional interpretations of Pompeian, mythological, and historical symbols. This transition from “collective symbol” to “individual mark” culminates in the creation of a choral constellation: a portable device designed to inhabit and redefine one’s own reading of everyday life.