L’appel du large is the irresistible call of the untamed, on the horizon of our wildest dreams. Cast off! Hoist the sails! Amsterdam knows this well: in its docks, its moorings, its cobblestones—having been both a sanctuary and a port of call. But today’s music is no longer the promise of an exotic land to be conquered; we have learned that there are no empty lands, only othernesses that seek each other out and confront one another on the other side of the world. There is no terra incognita, except in the depths of our dreams: the call of the wild comes from within.

It must capture our attention with something out of the ordinary and then rouse the dormant spark of our imagination. This mechanism draws on one of the oldest motifs in human art and mythic creation: the chimera, the hybrid of two familiar beings that gives rise to a third—unknown, captivating, and fascinating.

We invite the lamassu of Nineveh and the Sphinx of Giza to join us for afternoon tea: they all embody the surreal and fluid imprint of creation—the very one the Surrealists would take as far as the *cadavre exquis*, where head, torso, and feet or tail blend into a hypnotic cocktail. And so, we need a new metamorphosis—to fashion a new form of Pegasus that reflects the lights and silhouettes of passersby, channeling the multiple reflections of the facade.

If we set sail for an island tonight, it won’t be Dr. Moreau’s, but that of Gustave Moreau, the French painter who turned his home into a studio and museum to welcome the fauns, centaurs, nymphs, cyclopes, and nereids of his imagination. We must turn to the last of the Symbolists to find a soul behind a tree, a stream, a spring, and perhaps even a street—from ancient Greece to the Amsterdam of tomorrow. If we set sail for Cythera… didn’t you know? A grand celebration awaits us, dressed for the occasion—a once-in-a-lifetime event. A journey toward a splendor hidden in the deepest depths, from which we’ll return with an incomparable thirst for life.

In this minimalist Wunderkammer, only a few treasures emerge thanks to precise lighting. The horse is at the heart of it all: a gallop, a burst of energy about to be unleashed. But artisanat—craftsmanship—elevates the materials at hand. It infuses dreams into the mane, form into the thread, and fingerprints and monograms into the metal. All we need to do is don these magical objects, and the adventure begins instantly. This saddle would transport us to an unparalleled *Winterreise*, where music always floats in the air. Traveling inward, toward the dreams yet to come. Facing unknown trials to reach unknown delights. Come in—Siduri’s inn—where the characters from all the epics gather—is open, perhaps just for one night, in Amsterdam.

‍