Cento Lumi per Casale Monferrato / A Hundred Lights for Casale Monferrato: Lampade di Chanukkah: Una Collezione tra Storia, Arte e Design / Hanukkah Lamps: A Collection of History, Art and Design
By (Author) Elio Carmi
By (author) Maria Luisa Caffarelli
Skira
Skira
1st September 2011
Italy
176
Width 220mm, Height 320mm
890g
The only collection of its kind in the world, continuously expanding, built on the dedication of Casale Monferrato's Jewish Community. A hanukkiah is a candelabrum with eight branches plus the shamash, the servant light, which must never be the same as the others, but always placed higher or lower, or in an otherwise misaligned position. After the Holocaust various artists, architects and designers began to create their own hanukkiah, as if to capture the universal significance of the rebirth into the light, attracted by this object that has such a huge emotional potential, but is also so malleable and "open": liturgical because it is part of a religious ritual on the occasion of Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, but a household object too, because it is also kindled by families at home, and a "bringer of light". It must give light. And as it sheds its light it tells a story.