1 luglio – 15 Ottobre 2023 / The personal exhibition
where the stars are born
Diocesan Museum of Massa
via Alberica 26 Massa Italy
Catalog PDF – Tap to view
POETRY IN PLASTIC FORM
For some artists, sculpture is the translation into plastic form of philosophical principles and mental lucubrations; for others, a celebratory and encomiastic medium that aspires and declines in monumental form; for others, a few, sculpture is a dialogue with materials and techniques to indulge poetic afflatus. Kazumasa Mizokami’s work is the perfect translation of this last instance; the result of a syncretism of even heterogeneous elements that contribute with a magical formula to define harmonious forms and a poetic aura that surrounds them. But this poetic dimension that goes perfectly with the formal outcomes is not only the result of the abstract-design dimension of the artist, the latter who grew up as an heir to the great tradition of oriental ceramic workmanship, perfectly dominates the moderation of the terracotta with which he makes many of his sculptures. The mind and the hand feed off each other, enfranchising industrial processuality in favor of the operativity of homo faber, of the one who is the ultimate terminal of a stratification of knowledge related to artisanal savoir-faire, handed down from generation to generation for millennia. His works are not only poetic vectors but are also works charged with a historical bearing and an anthropic sedimentation that connotes them in a dimension of temporal suspension; the themes to which the artist gives form are those of the quotidian, the circadian ones of the small things and micro actions that punctuate the flow of human life. Elements and gestures that fall under the attention of the senses of the artist, a keen observer and capable performer, able to translate them into plastic form, into poetry (explanatory in this sense “Girl walking on flowers,”“Blue Man”) Mizokami’s poetic choice with respect to sculptural language is clear; he eschews the monumentality and celebratory instance that have connoted sculpture for millennia, as a medium capable of handing down heroic figures and deeds for millennia to posterity. His sculpture conquers “horizontality,” breaking down the diaphragm between art and life, removing that elitist aura that often characterizes plastic art. The observer is “forced” to exert an effort to reactivate the poetic instance, that particular capacity for spiritual abstraction that is almost always subordinated to the rational, Apollonian one handed down to us by the Enlightenment and celebrated since the 18th century. The artist in this context wages a solitary and silent ethical battle with the zeitgeist and especially with that media universe that daily spreads a pervasive and penetrating shower of images and forms destitute of communicative and poetic foundation. A struggle his that passes through the decantation of the material and its processing, follows the syncopated rhythm of thought and its wanderings oscillating between drifts and landings, voluntarily distancing himself from the maddening pace of production and the rules of marketing and the art market that increasingly align themselves with the frenetic rules of fashion design. Mizokami’s sculpture is also able to dialogue synergistically with the pictorial instance, with the subtle ability to harmonize forms and colors, integrate chromatic spectrum, volumetries and proportions ( see “The Stars of Day,” “Clear the Moon,” “A Drop of Moon,” just to name a few of the works on display) Works that are declined with respect to the viewer’s fraction both according to horizontal dynamics and on the verticality of the wall, again testifying to a deep knowledge of fruitive processes ( see the series “H2O”). While refractory to the -isms that occur with regular frequency in the art world, the his deep knowledge of Western and Eastern art history is distilled in the titles and “gentle” form of his works. The artist has meditated on the harmony of classicism of a Canova and Bernini, but he also knows the infraction committed by figures like Rodin in France and Medardo Rosso in Italy at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, made even more heated by the historical avant-gardes of the 1920s, and he neglects neither the Informal wave nor the revolution led by Fontana in the extinction of sculptural form in space (“Girl with Apples,”“One Day Adam”The dimension of the conceptual that has dominated a twenty-year period since the 60′ in its minimal forms, arte povera or the environmental ones of land art is declined in a “lightened” and lyrical form by the artist, who never gives up form, figure and the balance of proportions and vectors and above all coordinates everything with poetic dynamics. Sculpture and painting arts of space, which in Mizokami’s case are enriched with phonemes related to time as duration and procesuality, organizing almost in a choreographic key a choreographic oscillation between interpretative dimension and poetic digression, between the work itself and the observer A synaesthetic work, requiring the activation of all the senses in the viewer, in order to be understood in its completeness, setting in motion both the plastic and pictorial registers, the “sound” dynamics and intertextual recall of poetry alluding to music ( see “The Night Dancing with the Stars” and “Infinity”). The Japanese artist testifies that sculpture is still alive and able to speak to an audience increasingly immersed in the digital media infosphere; heedless of Baudelaire’s statement made on the sidelines of the Salons, “Sculpture is boring (… ) an art of the barbarians” in his famous “The Painter of Modern Life,” and he is not fooled by Alberto Martini’s announcement (“Sculpture Dead Language” 1946) in the chorus of prefects who regularly announce the death of sculpture or at least its derubrication among the obsolete arts. He has continued his work thank God, ceaselessly feeding the eye, brain and spirit of the fortunate observer. Quoting Elena Pontiggia, from the introduction to the catalog “The Miracles of Kaumasa”: “…one would say, looking at these works, that Kazumasa builds an earthly paradise.”
POESIA IN FORMA PLASTICA Per alcuni artisti la scultura è la traduzione in forma plastica di principi filosofici ed elucubrazioni mentali, per altri un medium celebrativo ed encomiastico che aspira e si declina in forma monumentale, per altri, pochi, la scultura è un dialogo con i materiali e le tecniche per assecondare l’afflato poetico. L’opera di Kazumasa Mizokami è la perfetta traduzione di questa ultima istanza; il risultato di un sincretismo di elementi anche eterogenei, che contribuiscono con una magica formula a definire forme armoniche e un’aura poetica che le circonfonde. Ma questa dimensione poetica che si sposa perfettamente con gli esiti formali non è solo frutto della dimensione astratta-progettuale dell’artista, quest’ultimo cresciuto come erede della grande tradizione della lavorazione della ceramica orientale, domina perfettamente la moderazione della terracotta con cui realizza molte delle sue sculture. La mente e la mano si alimentano a vicenda affrancandosi della processualità industriale a favore dell’operatività da homo faber, di colui che è il terminale ultimo di una stratificazione di conoscenze legate al saper-fare artigianale, tramandate di generazione in generazione per millenni. Le sue opere non sono solo vettori poetici ma sono anche opere cariche di un portato storico e di una sedimentazione antropica che le connota in una dimensione di sospensione temporale; i temi a cui l’artista da forma sono quelli della quotidianità, quelli circadiani delle piccole cose e delle micro azioni che costellano lo scorrere della vita dell’uomo. Elementi e gesti che cadono sotto l’attenzione dei sensi dell’artista, acuto osservatore e capace esecutore, in grado di tradurli in forma plastica, in poesia (esplicative in tal senso “Ragazza che cammina sui fiori”, “Uomo Blu”) E’ netta la scelta poetica di Mizokami rispetto al linguaggio scultoreo; rifugge la monumentalità e l’istanza celebrativa che hanno connotato la scultura per millenni, come medium in grado di tramandare figure e gesta eroiche per millenni alla posterità. La sua scultura conquista “l’orizzontalità”, rompe il diaframma fra arte e vita, allontanando quell’aura elitaria che spesso caratterizza l’arte plastica. L’osservatore viene “costretto” ad esercitare uno sforzo per riattivare l’istanza poetica, quella particolare capacità di astrazione spirituale che viene quasi sempre subordinata a quella razionale, apollinea tramandataci dai lumi e celebrata sin dal XVIII secolo. L’artista in questo contesto intraprende una solitaria e silenziosa battaglia etica con lo zeitgeistt e soprattutto con quell’universo mediatico che quotidianamente diffonde una pervasiva e penetrante pioggia di immagini e forme destituite di fondamento comunicativo e poetico. Una lotta la sua che passa dalla decantazione della materia e della sua lavorazione, segue il ritmo sincopato del pensiero e delle sue peregrinazioni oscillando fra derive e approdi, allontanandosi volontariamente dal forsennato ritmo produttivo e dalle regole del marketing e del mercato artistico che si allineano sempre di più a quelle frenetiche del fashion design. La scultura di Mizokami è inoltre in grado di dialogare in maniera sinergica con l’istanza pittorica, con la sottile capacità di armonizzare forme e colori, integrare spettro cromatico, volumetrie e proporzioni ( vedi “Le stelle di Giorno”, “Chiara la Luna”, “Una Goccia di Luna”, solo per citare alcune delle opere esposte) Opere che vengono declinate rispetto alla frazione dell’osservatore sia secondo dinamiche orizzontali che sulla verticalità del muro, testimoniando anche qui una profonda conoscenza dei processi fruitivi ( vedi la serie “H2O” ). Pur refrattario agli -ismi che si succedono con frequenza regolare nel mondo dell’arte, la sua profonda conoscenza della storia dell’arte occidentale e orientale viene distillata nei titoli e nella forma “gentile” delle sue opere. L’artista ha meditato sull’armonia del classicismo di un Canova e Bernini ma conosce anche l’infrazione commessa da figure come Rodin in Francia e Medardo Rosso in Italia a cavallo fra XIX e XX secolo, resa ancora più accesa dalle avanguardie storiche degli anni venti dello scorso secolo e non trascura né l’ondata informale né la rivoluzione condotta da Fontana nell’ambito dell’estinzione della forma scultura nello spazio ( “Ragazza con mele”, “Un giorno Adamo” La dimensione del concettuale che ha dominato un ventennio a partire dagli anni 60’ nelle sue forme minimal, arte povera o quelle ambientali della land art viene declinata in forma “alleggerita” e lirica dall’artista, che non rinuncia mai alla forma, alla figura e all’equilibrio delle proporzioni e dei vettori e soprattutto coordina il tutto con le dinamiche poetiche. Scultura e pittura arti dello spazio, che nel caso di Mizokami si arricchiscono di fonemi legati a tempo come durata e procesualità, organizzando quasi in chiave coreutica un’oscillazione coreografia fra dimensione interpretativa e divagazione poetica, fra l’opera stessa e l’osservatore Un’opera sinestetica, che richiede l’attivazione di tutti i sensi nell’osservatore, per essere compresa nella sua completezza, mettendo in moto sia il registro plastico che quello pittorico, le dinamiche “sonore” e di richiamo intertestuale della poesia alludendo alla musica ( vedi “La notte che danza con le stelle” e “L’infinito”). L’artista giapponese testimonia che la scultura è ancora viva e in grado di parlare a un pubblico sempre più immerso nell’infosfera mediatica digitale; incurante delle affermazioni di Baudelaire fatte a margine dei Salons, “La scultura è noiosa (…) un’arte dei barbari” nel suo famoso “Il pittore della vita moderna” e non è lasciato ingannare dall’annuncio di Alberto Martini (“Scultura lingua morta” 1946) nel dal coro di prefiche che annunciano con regolarità la morte della scultura o quanto meno la sua derubricazione tra le arti desuete. Ha continuato grazie a Dio la sua opera, continuando a nutrire incessantemente occhio, cervello e spirito del fortunato osservatore. Citando Elena Pontiggia, dalla presentazione del catalogo “I miracoli di Kaumasa”: “…verrebbe da dire, guardando queste opere, che Kazumasa costruisca un paradiso terrestre.”
“Blue Man”
) Mizokami’s poetic choice with respect to sculptural language is clear; he eschews the monumentality and celebratory instance that have connoted sculpture for millennia, as a medium capable of handing down heroic figures and deeds for millennia to posterity. His sculpture conquers “horizontality,” breaking down the diaphragm between art and life, removing that elitist aura that often characterizes plastic art. The observer is “forced” to exert an effort to reactivate the poetic instance, that particular capacity for spiritual abstraction that is almost always subordinated to the rational, Apollonian one handed down to us by the Enlightenment and celebrated since the 18th century. The artist in this context wages a solitary and silent ethical battle with the zeitgeist and especially with that media universe that daily spreads a pervasive and penetrating shower of images and forms destitute of communicative and poetic foundation. A struggle his that passes through the decantation of the material and its processing, follows the syncopated rhythm of thought and its wanderings oscillating between drifts and landings, voluntarily distancing himself from the maddening pace of production and the rules of marketing and the art market that increasingly align themselves with the frenetic rules of fashion design. Mizokami’s sculpture is also able to dialogue synergistically with the pictorial instance, with the subtle ability to harmonize forms and colors, integrate chromatic spectrum, volumetries and proportions ( see “The Stars of Day,”
“Clear the Moon,”
“A Drop of Moon,”
just to name a few of the works on display) Works that are declined with respect to the viewer’s fraction both according to horizontal dynamics and on the verticality of the wall, again testifying to a deep knowledge of fruitive processes ( see the series “H2O”
). While refractory to the -isms that occur with regular frequency in the art world, the his deep knowledge of Western and Eastern art history is distilled in the titles and “gentle” form of his works. The artist has meditated on the harmony of classicism of a Canova and Bernini, but he also knows the infraction committed by figures like Rodin in France and Medardo Rosso in Italy at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, made even more heated by the historical avant-gardes of the 1920s, and he neglects neither the Informal wave nor the revolution led by Fontana in the extinction of sculptural form in space (“Girl with Apples,”
“One Day Adam”
The dimension of the conceptual that has dominated a twenty-year period since the 60′ in its minimal forms, arte povera or the environmental ones of land art is declined in a “lightened” and lyrical form by the artist, who never gives up form, figure and the balance of proportions and vectors and above all coordinates everything with poetic dynamics. Sculpture and painting arts of space, which in Mizokami’s case are enriched with phonemes related to time as duration and procesuality, organizing almost in a choreographic key a choreographic oscillation between interpretative dimension and poetic digression, between the work itself and the observer A synaesthetic work, requiring the activation of all the senses in the viewer, in order to be understood in its completeness, setting in motion both the plastic and pictorial registers, the “sound” dynamics and intertextual recall of poetry alluding to music ( see “The Night Dancing with the Stars”
and “Infinity”
). The Japanese artist testifies that sculpture is still alive and able to speak to an audience increasingly immersed in the digital media infosphere; heedless of Baudelaire’s statement made on the sidelines of the Salons, “Sculpture is boring (… ) an art of the barbarians” in his famous “The Painter of Modern Life,” and he is not fooled by Alberto Martini’s announcement (“Sculpture Dead Language” 1946) in the chorus of prefects who regularly announce the death of sculpture or at least its derubrication among the obsolete arts. He has continued his work thank God, ceaselessly feeding the eye, brain and spirit of the fortunate observer. Quoting Elena Pontiggia, from the introduction to the catalog “The Miracles of Kaumasa”: “…one would say, looking at these works, that Kazumasa builds an earthly paradise.”
