Drawbacks

I don’t know why, but there are times when my love for Japan becomes stinging and aching..

Japan is a place that gets inside you heart and soul, and before you know it, it gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger.
And the farther you are, the more it aches. It’s like a magic power that keeps attracting you, until you can finally let go.

And I guess this time of the year, when you feel spring, you hear birds singing, brings me back to THAT time, when I had the possibility to go there… and scared because of what happened in Fukushima and Sendai

I REFUSED.

I knew it woldn’t be something to regret, if only I had the courage to take a step forward in the future,

to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap
(like in the song “defying gravity”)

Truth is sometimes I feel as if I’m close to tears, I strongly want to go but I’m a coward.

I am scared. 

Spring and News

Right now I’m feeling good 🙂

Spring’s coming, today it was a great day, the sun was shining and for the first time the weather was kind of warm here in Milan too.

These days I was able to read a nice book I got for Christmas on Japanese gardens, as well as to visit two exhibitions in Brera, concerning the situation in Ishinomaki two years after the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and Fukagawa-Seiji ceramics respectively..

here’s the book..

And here are the exhibitions I’m talking about.

As for the first one, the one about Ishinomaki current situation, it was great to read very interesting stuff about something medias aren’t talking about anymore. I also learnt the existence of a lab, created with the purpose of giving faith to the people who lost everything, and trying to convey the idea of a reconstruction made possible thanks to the work, reciprocal help and cooperation of everybody.
If you want to know more:

Ishinomaki Lab

While talking about the porcelain exhibition, it was one of the finest and most delicate things I’ve ever seen concerning the subject. At first I didn’t even know there was this exposition, it was kind of a surprise.. but I’m glad I’ve managed to see it, so if you’re strolling around Brera, just drop by and you won’t be disappointed.

and again.. here’s the link if you’re interested: “Fukagawa Seiji

Both these expositions can be found in Milan, Vicolo Ciovasso 1, in a place called “Associazione culturale Arte Giappone”

It’s been a long time since I could last do something similar, so I felt pretty proud and happy to be able to match up with everything.. ^_^

Next exhibitions I would love to see are the following:

The pleasure of reading

Recently, having just one exam left at university, I read a lot about Japan and its culture, trying to grasp any information I possibly can 🙂
I thought I would share the books with you (:

   

5×10 All the BEST!

Oh my gosh!

Yesterday I got a present from Japan ^_^ A friend of mine went there for a whole month this summer, both to visit that great country and learn the language..

and here is my present!

 

and I’m now getting a bit emotional while listening to 感謝カンゲキ雨嵐 (Kansha kangeki ame arashi), feeling it is the real japanese thing and remembering when I saw their concert on DVD for the first time ❤

Thank you so much Adriano! 😀

°°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°   °°°

Maru de hitoribocchi da to,
nageku soba de gareki ni saita hana ga
yurayura miteru.

Dareka ga dareka wo sasaete ikite irun da:
tanjun na shinjitsu ga kizu wo iyashiteku.

Who invented this? It should have been me!

The idea itself makes me laugh so much..

But how many times it would have been wonderful to have this pillow during the long nights where I couldn’t go to bed beacuse of projects?

Here’s the genius who invented it -> http://www.studiobanana.org/

Cose impossibili da catturare

Certe volte ci si sveglia con l’impressione di annegare nei propri impegni, la testa talmente colma che sembra scoppiare e le palpebre pesanti per aver dormito troppo poco..

Sono contenta che in mezzo a tutto questo io sia ancora capace di cogliere il tepore del sole estivo e un rivolo di vento, e sentirmi anche solo per un istante in pace col mondo.

MA and associates

Something unexpected took me by surprise last week, when I had just got back from Chicago. And it was the lecture held at my university to present this book in particular and the work of a famous italian architect in general.

The fact is, the famous italian architect we’re talking about is my professor’s father, and I could have never imagined him to have such a strong connection with the world I would love to know better.

here’s the link to his website: http://www.studiomangiarotti.com/index.php

The book itself – wrote by 3 different people altogether – seems really interesting, and I would definitely like to buy it. But the lecture itself was fun too. There was a very long table where different personalities were sitting, each one of them was ready to give his own point of view on Angelo Mangiarotti’s work and tell us something about his relationship with him.
Most of them were japanese designers, given also the title of the book.
We were also somehow connected directly to Japan that day, as there was a “live participation” of some collaborators and assistants from the MA and associates studio in Tokyo during the conference. Some of them spoke in italian – and it was sometimes hard to understand – but some chose to talk in japanese, since there was Kinoue Horikawa translating for us.
And here I had great fun, since I could – at least a little – understand what they were saying way before she could translate, laughing consequently some seconds before everybody else in the room. XD

The final intervention was by architect Matteo Pirola, who tried to underline some specific features, typical of Mangiarotti’s work, which could recall japanese approach to architecture, art, and life in general.

• He’s will to walk away from the shadow of the tree that is his constant will to become better than any of his teachers.
• His conception of beauty. A beauty that lies in uncontrollable little imperfections.
• The will to merge nature and the project, whatever it may be.
• His constant search for simplicity.
• His interest for the theme of “the minimum and the maximum”.
• His idea of participation.
• His love for pure matter “If you listen to the matter, it will talk to you”.
• And finally the idea of void, which is never something negative but positive to the point it has much more importance than the matter itself. -> reference to a book called “Estetica del vuoto” by Giangiorgio Pasqualotto (which I read for one of my exams ^_^)

 What an interesting morning I spent that day (:

Note: Angelo Mangiarotti, born in Milan in 1921, before establishing his office in Italy, had – in the very first years after his graduation – worked in the USA, getting to know Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies Van der Rohe, Walter Gropius and Konrad Wachsmann, as well as participating to the competition for Chicago “LOOP”. (Oh my gosh.. that’s exactly everything I saw 2 weeks ago..)

Just how many coincidences will there still be?

Music on the road

Just wanted to share something that draw my attention sometime ago, when I was casually strolling around the city centre and allowed me to spend a little time listening to good music:

so here it is!

Check their facebook page if you do have facebook (:

http://www.facebook.com/thestreetles

 

On the other side of the world

Back from a week-long trip to the USA, my first trip to the USA ever!

I’ve been to Chicago with a group of 50 people from university, some of them were totally hilarious, some of them weren’t at all, but in the end it was great fun!

America, at least in Illinois, is a flat land. You can see infinite plains without borders nor end, without mountains nor hills, just a lot of green and small repetitive houses. Everything could be enclosed in a geometric grid. The first day we even got lost in the Chicago grid, meaning it wasn’t easy to have landmarks to refer to except from the highest skyscrapers, overtopping other “smaller” buildings all around. And anyways those skyscrapers seemed always much closer than they really were.

L’estetica del fare

Today I spent an interesting afternoon with a friend of mine, visiting the exhibition “Made in Japan – l’estetica del fare” held at Milan’s Triennale.

Tomorrow is the last day this exhibition will be up, therefore I finally decided to go and have a look..

What actually struck me the most was a video installation by a japanese artist living in Milan: Takane Ezoe -> http://www.takaneezoe.com/

There was a huge wall divided in 3 parts. The central part was full of clippings showing photos and newspaper articles about the disaster of march 2011, while some colourful videos showed images of natural sceneries and natural elements from Japan. The two parts found on the sides, on the other hand, had a giant screen in the centre showing the moment when the catastrophic tsunami destroyed everything, and some interviews to people who lived these events in first person respectively. The aforesaid videos where surrounded by quotations of people who lost everything but still wanted show gratitude towards those who – being in the same conditions – where able to give a hand and help others, finding the strenght to go on and fight, the strenght to start anew through little steps.

This installation’s name was “KIZUNA”

“ “Kizuna” significa “legame” nel senso di “rapporto solidale fra le persone” e questa catastrofe ha reso il rapporto tra le persone “intenso”.
In molti hanno perso la propria vita per salvare quella degli altri. Non potevano lasciar morire il prossimo senza cercare prima di salvarlo. I sopravvissuti sono stati costretti a vivere assieme per quattro mesi in grandi sale. Era necessario che avessero cura non solo di se stessi, ma anche degli altri con i quali condividevano lo spazio. Le vittime aiutavano altre vittime che si trovavano in condizioni peggiori. Era l’unico modo per non pensare alla propria tristezza. Chi era rimasto incolume donava loro denaro, cibo, i propri oggetti personali e il prodotto del proprio lavoro. Molti sono andati a fare volontariato, rischiando la propria vita. Ognuno ha cercato di aiutare gli altri in ogni modo possibile.
Il Giappone è unito fortemente con l’amore, e velocemente, sta guarendo grazie a “KIZUNA”.“

cit. Takane Ezoe