Its point of departure is Italo Calvino’s tale “Fanta-Ghirò” and Lamberto Bava’s 1990s film universe: the story of a warrior princess who prevails not by magic but through self-knowledge.

This collection does not depict heroes so much as states of being: the interplay of feminine and masculine principles between light and shadow; the threshold between disguise and recognition; the crossing from body to spirit. In the hands of The world of SEDO × Aldermann, these layers take shape as ritual object sets—composed of materials that have already lived once.

The collection also functions as a treasure-hunt and restoration practice: flea markets, antiques and heirlooms are not mere hunting grounds but dialogues with time and use. The resulting sets speak—through small scars and careful repairs—of durability, fragility, and quiet rebirth.

The emphasis is on preservation, not production: the materials of the past, the trace of the human hand, patina and absence are all part of its beauty and singularity. Each piece is a transitional object, both confession and totem—for the rituals of urban modern pagans, contemporary “vikings,” and attuned collectors. 

Thus, the groups of objects are not simply rescued “finds” or documents of an era, but re-tuned relics: each set is assembled over weeks or months of research so that forms, colours, and materials fall into harmony. In this way the objects become stories, and Aldermann (Judit’s literary alter ego) appears as a curatorial figure—a guardian of the passage between old matter and contemporary thought.

THE SEMIOTICS OF MATERIALS IN THE FANTAGHIRÓ COLLECTION 

The core materials are metal, wood, ceramic, stone, and silk. The narrative becomes a kind of inner archaeology—an identity-history unearthed through matter. Together, these materials form the collection’s five elements: the substances of will, life, body, time, and soul.

Their choice is not decorative but an ethical and spiritual decision—a manifesto of durability, naturalness, touch, and reverence for the past. The collection presents not only objects but a worldview condensed into matter.

METAL— the matter of time and identity

Carrier of will and memory, and a sign of alchemical transformation. Restored bronze, copper, silver, and iron embody experience sealed in time—reshapable yet indestructible. Metal becomes the material of selfhood’s endurance: a boundary that gives form without confinement.

WOOD — living memory

A mediator between body and nature. Its fibrous growth lines hold time’s expansion; every strand is past and future at once. Chests, altar elements, and frames guard the rituals of the inner space—the shared gesture of hand and nature.

CERAMIC — the body’s metaphor

Shaped from earth and fired by flame, it holds fragility and renewal together. Cracks and mends (in a kintsugi-like spirit) are lines of a lived story. In the collection, ceramic aligns with a receptive, holding principle: chalice, bowl, vase—the threshold between emptiness and fullness.

STONE — silence and permanence

Heavy, slow, nearly eternal—standing between human action and geological patience. Stone objects carry the weight of remembrance, the points where ritual and story condense. It is the material of sacred ground, the base upon which other layers rest.

SILK — the matter of the soul

A sign of transience and resonance. Delicate, luminous, responsive—counterweight to stone and metal, completing a circle of balance. Silk is the language of motion and sensitivity: where light glints and ritual breathes; the closest texture to human touch—where object meets soul.

WHY ITALO CALVINO ?

During her university years Judit encountered Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler, and, in shaping the collection, engaged more deeply with his thinking on fairy tales—especially the preface to Fiabe italiane and essays/works such as Invisible Cities and Why Read the Classics? For Calvino, the fairy tale is not childlike but an anthropological mirror: a compressed form of human experience in which acts become archetypes.

The Fantaghiro Collection thus draws not merely on the 1990s TV aesthetics, but on Calvino’s idea of story as world-making—a reorganization of reality. In the collection, Aldermann does not retell the tale; she writes the stories behind the objects. Myth and restoration are two faces of the same gesture: one restores meaning, the other matter.

Both the Fantaghirò narrative and Calvino’s view of story frame the hero’s / heroine's journey as inward travel. This is also the maker’s path here: immersion in material, the finding of self, and a return to the world with new knowledge.

THE COLLECTION'S TWO POLES 

A common axis: ritual as a human necessity

The shared denominator between “North” and “Now” is not religious content but ritual action. The initiatory symbolism of the Viking/Norse world (animal emblems, woven patterns, attributes of the northern gods) serves the same deep human need as modern pagan rites, personal spiritual practices—contemporary spirituality/post–New Age pathways from tea divination to self-knowledge–oriented tarot and working with stones.. etc. In this sense, every piece in the collection is a ritual object—it simply speaks different languages.

Concept: two poles—one current

• "North": Norse heritage, archaic craft materials, symbolic forms; primarily wood, stone, bone, ceramic.
• "Here & Now": contemporary urban rites and modern pagan practice—porcelain and glass implements, altar textiles, metal pieces, meditation tools

Both lines pursue the same question: how can meaning be found in everyday gestures?

Narrative bridge: The Fantaghiró tale 

Fantaghirò stands between worlds: moving among humans yet entrusted with tasks akin to the divine. In the collection she is a metaphor of ritual knowledge—one who crosses thresholds; at once warrior and healer, craftswoman and officiant. Thus any object—be it a Viking amulet or a tea-ceremony bowl—can become an alternate station on the hero’s path.

THE SYMBOLISM OF TRIPOD CANDLESTICKS AND MIRRORS

The Fantaghiro Collection often features three-branched candlesticks, which carry the archetype of the trinity: the unity of past, present, and future, as well as the cyclical cycle of the Celtic goddess trinity (the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone). This form evokes the sacred structure of time: the three flames symbolize birth, unfolding, and transformation after passing away. The triple candlestick is therefore not only a practical source of light, but also a ritual axis—a space connecting the three time planes of human life and the three faces of the feminine principle. When the three flames are lit, the substance of the past, the attention of the present, and the intention of the future merge into a single light.

Parallel to this, the mirror in the collection is a tool for inner vision and self-reflection. The mirror not only reflects, but is also a passageway—the boundary between matter and consciousness. Just as in the story of Fantaghirò, the heroine becomes free by recognizing herself, so the mirror in the collection becomes an object of self-knowledge: it invites us not only to look into it, but to see ourselves.

Historically, mirrors have always played a gateway and mediating role in different cultures. In ancient Egypt and Greece, bronze and silver mirrors were used for divination (catoptromancy), while in Japanese Shinto tradition, mirrors are considered sacred objects as the dwelling places of the gods (shintai). In European folk traditions, mirrors are gateways between the soul and the afterlife—symbols of the transition between birth and death. In the Victorian era, for example, mirrors were covered after a death so that "the soul would not remain trapped in them," while in other rituals, it was precisely through mirrors that the divine presence became "visible."

The Fantaghiro Collection therefore interprets the mirror as a medium for self-knowledge and memory. Just as the triple candlestick creates a connection between layers of time, so the mirror creates a connection between layers of identity. Both facilitate transformation: one through light, the other through sight. One illuminates time, the other purifies the self-image—both are tools for the transformation of the soul.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

The creator of the Fantaghiro Collection is a researcher, writer, graphic artist, and craft-based maker whose work stages an ongoing dialogue between myth, matter, and time. With a background bridging the visual arts and the humanities, she operates at the intersection of cultural heritage, visual archaeology, and material storytelling.

In this collection, the maker’s and the writer’s perspectives meet—one seeks rebirth in matter, the other in meaning. In the The world of SEDO × Aldermann project, Judit explores how craftsmanship can carry cultural memory and how the ethic of slow attention can be preserved in a rapidly consuming world. The Fantaghiro Collection embodies this stance: restored, re-tuned ensembles in which the past of matter harmonizes with the maker’s present.

Above all, the collection is guided not by nostalgia but by restoration performed with care—the belief that craft is one of the oldest forms of communication between human and world.

“Everything has life that is loved. Object, human, everything. And what has life deserves to live.”
— from 10, a theatrical play by Csaba Székely

“In my work, I seek the shared language of hand/movement and thought. I believe objects are not mere tools but forms of memory—artifacts where past and present remain in dialogue. The world of SEDO × Aldermann – The Fantaghiro Collection embodies this view: new, living sets for modern rituals, born of enduring materials. For me, restoration and creation are two faces of the same attentiveness—one listens to the past, the other addresses the present.”

with love, Judit

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If you are interested, you can follow Judit's literary work here. Here you will find mainly poems and texts written in Hungarian - @aldermann_d_judit