Hanami – Impermanence of Beauty
“HANAMI. Impermanence of Beauty” is the title of the study and collaboration project between the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and the Botanical Garden Museum. Started in 2020, it makes its public debut on 17 and 18 April 2021, on the occasion of the Hanami festival. An event dedicated to the ancient Japanese custom of admiring the extraordinary blossoming of the cherry trees in the Japanese Garden.
“We are the bees of the invisible. We gather the honey of the visible with abandon, to store it in the great golden hive of the invisible.” (Rainer Maria Rilke).
In this context, Hanami is complemented by “Sustainable Imagination”, the contemporary art project in which Alessandra Porfidia’s Sculpture course promotes research work between Art and Nature, to enhance the aesthetic point of view between the visible and the invisible.
Starting from nature, the intention is to arrive at a vision, a sign. Looking at the natural environment, the plants, which give us a surprising aesthetic richness, the aim is to rediscover harmony and enhance the beauty that has characterised art since its inception. Therefore, the focus is on starting from the re-establishment of harmony between Space and Environment, between Man and Nature. The title of the event expresses the wonder and emotion aroused by the simple observation of nature captured at the peak of its beauty, but which is soon destined to vanish, introducing the viewer to the feeling of the transience of the world. It is precisely this impermanent spectacle that imbues the moment of Hanami with fascination and strikes us. The dialogue between nature and the viewer offers a philosophy of feeling that is particularly important today, especially for the implications of rediscovering the physical and conceptual relationship with the cosmos. Changing nature, its cyclical time, has always found a counterpart in the languages, worlds and forms of Japanese culture. We are talking about a true philosophy, based on living the experience. From static and immersive meditation and contemplation, to the dynamic experience of the landscape, represented in the microcosm of the Japanese garden that tells of a landscape in motion, brought about by walking along a path, where the changing gaze is in harmony with the changing space and form. This journey is emphasised by the art installations interpreted by the students of the two Sculpture courses of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, the course of Prof. Alessandra Porfidia and the course of Prof. Patrizia Bisonni. The artistic route that visitors can admire covers the area of the Fountain of the Tritons along the path, through the Palm Trees, the Bamboo Forest and up to the Japanese Garden. The works all arose from the dialogue with the place – the Botanical Garden Museum.
The installation-like character of the works reflects the concept of transience, present both in the plant materials, which are mostly used, and in the conceptual aspect interpreted by the forms. Some of the smaller works are displayed near the central Fountain of the Tritons. This is a collection of works almost all in ceramic, but also in natural materials and marble, inspired by organic forms. These poetic works also arose from the dialogue with the beauty of plants and flowers, whose vitality and fragrance are juxtaposed with the objects presented, thanks to the Ikebana compositional interpretation created by the “Ohara A.L.U. Study Group” under the direction of group leader Silvana Mattei. The poetics and aesthetics of Ikebana capture symbols and convey a philosophy, which was also studied during the design of the container objects created by the student artists.
The poetic, philosophical and aesthetic world represented by the Japanese Garden, together with the works of sculpture and ikebana, therefore offers visitors an opportunity to approach the Eastern vision of space, emptiness, time, nature and beauty, in line with the intentions that the “Hanami at the Botanical Garden” has had since its first edition.
Artists: Victor Albano, Mitsuki Akiyama, Jessica Anacoreta, Silvia Broccatelli, Michela Cicolani, Laura Cocuccioni, Bogdan Cota, Sabino De Nichilo, Giada D’Amico, Ainda Fabbricini, Livio Formignani, Fernando Mennella, Antonella Mosca, Mozzarella Light (Marco Frassinelli and Giulia Ciappi), Anna Nardi, Luisinia Pontremoli, Chiara Russo, Guido Saporito, Sophie Simon, Maria Vittoria Soracco, Virginia Pellegrini, Michele Vasca, Gloria Zeppilli, Liu Yi, Zuing Zhang.