The term ‘leporello‘ refers to printed material folded into an accordion-pleat style. Also sometimes known as a concertina fold, it is a method of parallel folding with the folds alternating between front and back. The name likely comes from the manservant, Leporello, in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, who the Famed rogue and lover Don Giovanni (in Italian – also known as Don Juan in Spanish) has seduced so many women that when Leporello displays a tally of his conquests, it unfolds, accordion-style, into a shockingly long list. Many leporellos are used as a way of telling a story, while others are purely visual.
In the Victorian era, leporellos were quite commonly used as travel souvenirs, depicting beautiful, panoramic scenes of the places travelers had just seen, customs and culture of the region and the like. They are often used in illustrated children’s works, as well. Collectors of books and paper ephemera will love their scarcity and delicate beauty.
Book: The Dailies by Thomas Demand
Artist and photographer Thomas Demand partnered with London-based publishers Mack Books to create a limited edition catalogue for his project, entitled ‘The Dailies‘. Demand has created the poetry of the everyday; haikus of glanced objects, dreamlike scenes and liminal locations. ‘The Dailies’, as the photographic installation is called, recalling the daily rushes of a feature film, takes over a whole floor of the building. Accompanying the exhibition (presented by Kaldor Public Art Projects) is a limited-edition catalogue, which Demand produced in collaboration with London-based publishers Mack Books.
The substantial 32-page volume can be displayed in a circular fashion, appropriated to its leporello binding. Its concertina pages, a nod to the fluted pillars which make up the base of the building, come together to form a 16-pointed star which is encased with a magnetised closing system in faux leather, ‘The Dailies‘ was designed by Naomi Mizusaki of Supermarket, who has worked with Demand on a number of books – such as his most recent publication, “La Carte d’apres Nature“. The photographs that make up The Dailies are of cardboard and paper sculptures. Some of them – like the coffee cup caught in a chain link fence or the twist of paper trapped in a grating – speak of transient urban scenes. Other constructions (of windows, doors or changing rooms) are places of passage, not residence; as is the location of the exhibition, a members’ club for travelling salesmen.
In the CTA building, each of the photographs are framed on the wall of a different room, radiating from a circular corridor. Demand has made subtle adjustments to the contents and fittings so they complement his beautifully melancholic images of life’s lost details. The installation is a collaboration with the writer Louis Begley, author of About Schmidt, who has penned a short story about a commercial traveller’s dream-state visit to the CTA. Fragments of the story, Gregor in Sydney, are printed in each room and on the pages of the book. A unique scent has also been created by Miuccia Prada.
Read more at- http://www.wallpaper.com/art/book-the-dailies-by-thomas-demand#kXF1HvFXJodlWO3u.99
My Further Interpretations
I feel using the concertina and leporello form would be a great way to narrate a story and a pattern, as well as being able to compare two different narratives exploring my hypothesis of love. By appropriating some of the works like Thomas Demand, I feel this is a good way of using similar skills by comparing ‘non-traditional photos associated with love‘ with those that of ‘traditional‘ love images on the other side, submerging the concept of how they can be cross-contextually similar or even indifferent.