Walkabout, published by Marsilio Arte and Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d'Arte, is the final product of a project devised by Margherita Pincioni, designed by Leonardo Sonnoli, with photographs by Matteo Cirenei: it is the logbook of a journey that began in Milan in 2013 and was inspired by the ritual path that Australian aborigines take in search of experiences, contacts and new resources. The book was written, drawn and manipulated, sequentially by designers, architects, illustrators, photographers and designers, who gradually built a geographical map of human and artistic relationships, starting from a notebook that has now become a unique publication.
Walkabout, published on the occasion of Franco Cologni’s 90th birthday, is a tribute by Milanese artists to their city, a travelling book that has moved from place to place, entering into relationship with different environments, preserving its own identity and specific characteristics. Each author took part in the realisation of a volume that stands out, as Franco Cologni states in his introductory essay, for the ‘craftsmanship and creative passion, through which a surreal story unfolds that has the hieratic rhythm of a dream, but also the dynamic drive of a tale’; it was the ‘audacity and authenticity of the inspiration’ of the project that struck him, prompting him to create an unprecedented tribute to the city of Milan, in the year of its 90th birthday.
The uniqueness and originality of the book was also preserved in the printing process: the three-colour background print run underwent an alteration of the inks, resulting in prints - as graphic designer Leonardo Sonnoli points out - that were ‘wrong and unique’, resulting in different covers for each copy.
The book was presented on Tuesday 28 January 2025 in the Salone d'Onore of Triennale Milano, with a round table mpoderated by Alberto Cavalli at the presence of authors Margherita Pincioni and Matteo Cirenei, curator and expert Jean Blanchaert, architect and designer Giulio Iacchetti, visual artist Sabrina D'Alessandro and graphic designer Leonardo Sonnoli.
Find out where to buy it: https://www.marsilioarte.it/prodotti/walkabout/
