The exposition itself was demonstrated as part of the Made in Italy project, which brought together the best Italian designer brands - Agape, B&B Italia, Driade, Cassina, Cappellini, Flos, Poltrona Frau - on one site of Red October. However, the concept proposed by Arseny Leonovich did not advertise any manufacturers, except perhaps for the magazine itself. “We did not offer any products, but positioned the philosophy of INTERNI magazine, which is based on new ideas in contemporary art and social responsibility,” says the architect. - INTERNI magazine is an intellectual herald of Italian design, a seismograph of what is happening in the modern world. We can say that INTERNI is a publication that brings the light of truth about design. And our exposition is an art object that clearly demonstrates this philosophy."
The exposition, called "Words and Meanings", gives an idea of the meaning of words in everyday life. Many words surround us everywhere, sometimes great literary works are made of them, and sometimes, on the contrary, even the simplest phrase does not work out. Arseny Leonovich compared the words with … disposable paper cups, "drunk and unnoticed in the daily bustle." “These are the cubes that make up any speech building. Like puppets suspended on strings, words are lamps, myriads of flickering dots, each of which reflects the entire linguistic space,”explains the author of the exposition. And it brings such a poetic description to life almost literally: the installation is a set of paper cups with words illuminated from the inside, and these words are lined up in meaningful or random chains. A light is burning inside the cups - it slowly flares up, allowing not immediately, but only after a few moments to read the word written on the paper wall.
The architect explains that the choice of words that are printed on the cups is, first of all, dictated precisely by their meaning - the capacity and significance of the concepts. However, no matter how deeply meaning it may have, it had to fit on a glass - for example, the same "structuralism", for all its significance for modern culture, requires a much larger subject for itself.
It is interesting that the exhibition contains not only Russian words, but also Italian and English - the author was very interested to observe how concepts interact with each other, how their roots echo and transform in different linguistic environments. There are also exhibits with more universal symbols - for example, all understandable signs of world currencies or punctuation marks. In general, with the help of the simplest means and their interaction: twilight, disposable glasses and light, Arseny Leonovich makes viewers look at familiar, sometimes hackneyed words from a slightly different angle and be surprised at their polysemy and relevance. It is hoped that the updated INTERNI will meet these qualities.
