Istituto Svizzero and its 2016/2017 residents presented the programme Inscape Rooms and the group show La vita della mente. The overarching theme of this event is the investigation of thought as understood in its aspects concerning the unconscious, the dream, the metaphorical functioning of the mind, multi-sensory perception, memory, the crossing into virtual or supernatural reality, the sublime, the stream of consciousness, and the hypnotic state.

On that occasion, Numero Cromatico presented Dreamask – a tool for dreaming, or better to say, for remembering dreams. It consists of a container with an eye-mask and some written rules to follow before falling asleep. The device was first presented on the occasion of the group exhibition Inscape Rooms / La vita della mente curated by Giuliana Benassi at the Istituto Svizzero, Roma. Two hundred Dreamask were distributed to the public in the outdoor garden of Villa Maraini, asking them to use them the same night, once they returned home.

The goals of the project were: building an artwork that was outside contemplative logics and passive fruition; turning the public into the protagonist of the aesthetic experience; creating a publication of short stories by non-writers.