Dreamers can't reach their moon, otherwise, they'll just be Americans.

“Look at that, do you know who is he?”
“I am afraid not”
“He's the Dreamer, because he's trying to fly to the moon with an umbrella.
During his trip he meets Seagull, and they start flying together. Seagull had always appreciated people that can look behind appearances and, on the occurrence, to the hidden possibilities.
Not so far, a shy little angel, peeps out from a soft cloud to observe the brave travellers. He's always liked whoever is reaching for a dream; and so stares at the two with his big round eyes, and wish for their dreams to come true.”
“Do the man reach the moon in the end?”
“I'm afraid not”
“Why?”
“Otherwise the man would not be a dreamer any longer, just an American”.

The white, almost life sized marionettes of a man with an umbrella, a cloud, a seagull, an angel and the moon are the first things to catch my attention while I am ascending to the top floor of Ler Devagar bookshop, a conversion of an old factory stable sets in Alcantara, within what once was one of Lisbon's most important manufacturing complex.

There, within huge, obsolete machineries, a long twisted gangway runs all around luminous, colourful and noisy contraptions; and the Old Man stands there, smiling and looking at me, proud of the tale he's just told and of my reaction to it.
He motions to me, invites me to follow him, turns around and starts walking. I move behind him, a bit hesitating, until he starts explaining the function of all those weird knick knacks scattered around. Each one hides a story: there is a time machine that makes Time go mad and brings you back to the present, a little tower on top of which Day and Night can finally meet and be together before they part again to bring the world a new day; a few dancing, shiny insects made of copper and plastic. The calm, happy voice of Old Man joins together with vapour, lights and noises into a luring, fantastic world.

Old Man is not American, he comes from Italy. However, he's reached his dream: spend the life inventing useless inventions, born from waste material and brought to life by his words; inventions that bewitch, amuse visitors and make dreamers from all over living a dream, just for a bit, so they will have a memory of how does it feels like in case they won't reach their very own.

Caterina Berardi
May 2014