The Atelier and the 100 Languages - Roberta Pucci
- nonaorbach
- Feb 13
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 2
The identity of the space called atelier, within the educational field, originates from the theory of the Hundred Languages, which Malaguzzi articulated in his poem “No way. The hundred is there”. Indeed, the concept of the atelier naturally stems from the vision of the child expressed in the poem: a competent child, gifted with a great multiplicity of expressive, communicative and creative “languages” from birth.
The poem opens with these words: “No way, the Hundred is there”, meaning that this multifaceted potential is already there from the beginning. It naturally belongs to our nature as human beings. It’s a kind of precious seed ready to flourish, to concretize in the world from its potential state, if just given the chance.
It just needs a good enough environment, a welcoming context where this process can be allowed and nourished. Let’s call this place atelier.
Thus, I would define an atelier as a space-time frame offering a selection of materials, intentionally set up for developing and enriching a transformative interaction with the world, while expressing each person’s uniqueness.
According to this definition, the atelier is not necessarily a room or an extra room, even though this is how the first ateliers in the preschools of Reggio Emilia were born. It mostly consists of a way of designing and environment and of the quality of the interaction with children and materials, all in line with the goal just described.
So what are the required characteristics of such a place, with this goal, that we call atelier?
First of all, the metaphor of the Hundred Languages suggests that it should be multifaceted, variegated, containing diversity and multiplicity. Thus, it will correspond to the natural richness of the expressive potential of children, who play and learn at the same time, using all their senses and skills, body and mind.
Like the atelierista Vea Vecchi said, in early childhood, children do not separate the exploration of reality into separate disciplines, but from our point of view of adults, many different disciplinary approaches are present and interconnected in children researches. Can we educators see these multiple aspects involved in children's research?
Let’s consider, for example, a child who prepares a round cake for the birthday of a friend. First he kneads the cake, then decorates it with some small balls and some ornamental engravings made with a sharp tool; finally he divides the cake in many slices for sharing it with his friends. So here they are: modeling-tridimensional techniques and manual skills; tactile and sensory aspects; mathematical thinking (while dividing the slices); social and emotional skills (concerning friendship); and also aesthetic visual research through the decorations.
As Malaguzzi said, the 100 languages work naturally together in a synergistic cooperation. So we should consider multiplicity as a whole, where all the elements are connected by the sense of the process of that child, relating to her uniqueness.
A hundred languages is not a list of a hundred materials: they invite us to find out a hundred ways to use, for example, the same pencil instead. If we carefully observe, everyone will use it in a different way, maybe only for a detail. Moreover, the metaphor of hundred includes a variety of times and rhythms of the creative process, that can walk side by side. Every person has got his/her own pace, a personal approach to time and space: how does she move in the environment, how does he occupy a space ad intereact with the context?
How can every uniqueness be welcome within the general organizying of the educational context and the atelier?
Even if every approach is unique, while growing up each human being goes through the same universal developmental stages, that we as educators should know. I find amazing that the development of every child unfolds according to a universal, archetypical development and in the meantime intertwines, overlaps the uniqueness of that child. As Nona Orbach wrote in the beautiful book “The Good Enough Studio”, the particular expression of each individual, in their marks left on materials, is both unique and at the same time overlaps with the archetypical map of symbolism characteristic of humanity as a whole. In other words, each of us will walk through the same stages but in our own way, with our own pace, expressing a personal, unique variation of the same universal process. The knowledge of these universal processes, such as the drawing development, will help us to understand where the child is at that moment, what his actual interest and approach to drawing are, so that we can better see and support his process.
Thus, uniqueness is intertwined with universality, as two sides of the same coin, both necessary for understanding what is happening in the atelier.
Another very important element is, of course, the knowledge of materials (or of the Grammar of Matter), an essential characteristic of the identity of the atelierista – who is actually a specific professional with an artistic background.
It is not an intellectual knowledge and not optional. We should explore firsthand tools and materials that we offer to children. Only living our own creative process we can recognize, acknowledge and support children’s processes; also, we will be able to choose the right materials for suggestions and provocations. Hundred Languages does not mean doing everyday something new: it concerns the richness of the qualities (not the quantity) of the materials, the richness of their connections, the relationship between materials and children: what meanings, stories and knowledges are they creating?
All the points I talked about are interlinked to each other and with the specific context. Of course each context is different, as well as each human being, and that’s why there are not “always-valid” solutions. However, we have a clear goal showing the direction and some elements I tried to outline that can orient us.
The person (of whatever age) is both the starting point and the final point, realizing the hundred per cent of the potential that is possible at the moment.
“No way, the hundred is there”, it’s just waiting. Are we able to trust it?
Finally, don’t forget that you – as educator, atelierista, teacher, or parent – are never neutral but one of the active elements of the relation. Your uniqueness is part of the process, or we could metaphorically say, part of the dance, together with children and materials, within the atelier.
All images by author
Roberta Pucci, atelierista and art therapist
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