The 1968 Triennale di Milano theme The Big Number addressed world population growth, the achievements of modern science, and the connection between Western wealth and deepening poverty in the so-called Third World. At the invitation of curator Giancarlo De Carlo, Aldo van Eyck designed a presentation that provided a disturbing view of the collapse of Western welfare societies. Visitors had to cross through a forest of tree trunks and enter into a space dressed with distorting broken mirrors. Laughter came out of speakers. In the next room, huge photographs depicted Western civilisation as, unlike most traditional cultures, unable to solve the problem of the large number. ‘Mourn also for all butterflies,’ announced a wall text. Hidden in the last, round space, an installation made of a series of multicoloured streamers brought a message of hope — a vast multiplicity does not necessarily lead to catastrophe.

As a result of the students protests of ‘68 that led to the occupation of the Triennale, the exhibition never opened to the public.