Operae 2017

3-5 November

Lingotto – Turin

Camp Design Gallery / Elena Salmistraro / Trakatan

Medusa – Lonesome cowboy Nando

Turritopsis Nutricula is a small jelly fish, more commonly known as the Immortal Jellyfish: it has the unique ability to invert its own life cycle, and once reached adulthood, can transfer its cells back to childhood, in a hypothetical perpetual regeneration. This small being was discovered by the team of marine zoologists led by Ferdinando Boero, a well-known researcher dedicated to the divulgation and safeguarding of marine ecosystems in Italy and abroad and also known for his unique friendship with the guitarist Frank Zappa, who dedicated him a song: Lonesome cowboy Nando.

Inspired by both the zoological and mythological Medusa (in Italian a jellyfish is a medusa), Elena Salmistraro has conceived a hanging seat. Trakatan’s know-how in making handbags has made possible an unusual approach to leather: the soft material is not used simply as way of upholstering an existing structure, but rather it becomes the medusa itself.