Throughout his life he came across several prominent actors in the international field of culture. Just as this book was being published, Roland Barthes offered to write the foreword, but after his premature death, his far-from-fall-back-option was none other than Italo Calvino. Fellini was also an admirer of the author’s mysterious text and he asked him to design a brochure for his latest film “The Voice of the Moon”.
Luigi Serafini belongs to a generation which, following the horrors of the Second World War and rejecting the actions of their parents, had a strong urge to learn. Before creating Codex, he travelled across America by a way of his network of friends, dipping into the counterculture that Kerouac depicts so well.
From then onwards, it is said he must have embarked on a period of drug-taking to come up with such a weird piece of work. He openly admits to having taken mescaline, a hallucinogenic drug, highly practical to stretch creative horizons. At that time, American legislation tolerated its religious use by certain Indian communities. When he tried it for work purposes, it failed to bear much fruit: “under its effects, you are completely blind, you think you’re making works of art, but when you become sober again you find out that it’s just mediocre.” This experience of mescaline was important but not very useful in terms of production. Creativity is a daily exercise which is also based on the all the little things: a play on words, for sure, but we need to be there with all our head, no shortcuts taken!
The work on Codex took almost four years. During that time, he did other things to earn a living, particularly architectural drawings, which was his initial training.
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