TURF READING GROUP: Ground

Sat 23 July, 2-3:30pm // At Turf Projects // Free and open to all with tea and cake provided

Join Turf for our reading group exploring unusual and unexpected themes relating to our current art exhibitions. We will be looking at ‘Invisible Cities’ by Italo Calvino and a short text, ‘Minimising: Nō Stage in the Forest, Toyoma, Miyagi, 1995-96’ from ‘Anti-object: the Dissolution and Disintegration of Architecture’ by Kengo Kuma.

‘Invisible Cities’ is a collection of imaginary architectures in the form of 55 prose poems, intertwined with a dialogue between two characters: Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. “Perhaps, Kublai thought, the empire is nothing but a zodiac of the mind’s phantasms”. Perhaps – many unusual cities are described, but do they also each reflect an aspect of Marco Polo’s native Venice? ‘Minimising: Nō Stage in the Forest’ follows the author/architect as he responds to a brief to create a theatre to stage Nō dramas in a small town in Japan. Nō is the oldest, regularly performed theatre art form in the world; it has fascinated and influenced Western dramatists such as Brecht and Beckett. Come and find out more about it as we discuss the book and text.