Why is Nobuyoshi Araki’s only permanent installation in an Italian mosaic factory?

About ↓ · The Tokyo photographs that started everything ↓  · Love, Tokyo and 500 photobooks ↓ · Why Shinjuku came to Vicenza ↓ · Inside the two private rooms ↓ · Three original Japanese calligraphies ↓· Visit Araki’s only permanent installation ↓

ABOUT

What is the world's only permanent installation by Nobuyoshi Araki doing in an Italian mosaic factory?

At Fondazione Bisazza in Vicenza, the Japanese photographer's personal world has acquired a remarkable second address. A private room inspired by Tokyo's Rouge Bar in Shinjuku, complete with oval sofa, exhibition posters, photographs and a second mirrored space dedicated to his books. [1] Araki, one of Japan's best known and most controversial contemporary photographers, worked with Piero Bisazza to create Love-Dream, Love-Nothing, inaugurated in 2019. The result is an installation that brings together his photography, original Japanese calligraphy and objects associated with his working life in Tokyo. [1][8]

The room is part of Fondazione Bisazza's permanent collection in Montecchio Maggiore, Vicenza province, and can be visited free of charge with advance reservation.

THE TOKYO PHOTOGRAPHS THAT STARTED EVERYTHING

The relationship began in 2009, with a commission involving Japanese photography and Italian mosaics. Piero Bisazza, already a collector of Araki's Polaroids, invited the photographer to produce an advertising campaign for the Italian mosaic manufacturer. Gold mosaic surfaces met brilliantly coloured Japanese kimonos, while the photographer brought his unmistakable imagery to the compositions. [2][3] 

In an interview with Wallpaper, Piero explained that Araki's use of colour had always fascinated him. The Japanese photographer's treatment of the gold mosaics and the vivid colours of the models' clothing was precisely what he wanted for the campaign. Eight years later, in September 2017, Fondazione Bisazza opened a major exhibition devoted to Araki, curated by Filippo Maggia. Seventy photographs explored his work, from Sentimental Journey and Painting Flowers to Suicide in Tokyo, Hana Kinbaku and Love on the Left Eye. Thirteen photographs from the 2009 Bisazza commission were exhibited publicly for the first time. [4]

The exhibition attracted the attention of international design magazine Wallpaper, which examined the relationship between Araki's provocative photography and the Italian company's mosaic craftsmanship. [2] What began as a photographic commission had grown into an artistic relationship. 

LOVE, TOKYO AND 500 PHOTOBOOKS

To understand why this installation is so unusual, it helps to know the photographer behind it.  Born in Tokyo in 1940, Nobuyoshi Araki became internationally known for photographs that mix private life, sexuality, flowers, city scenes and mortality. His work has been widely exhibited and debated, particularly his provocative portraits of women and his use of kinbaku, Japanese rope bondage. One of his most influential works is Sentimental Journey, the photographic account of his honeymoon with his wife Yoko, published in 1971. The Museum of Modern Art in New York preserves a copy containing 108 photographic reproductions. [7]

Yoko remained central to his work until her death in 1990, and his later photographs repeatedly returned to their relationship. In 2017, the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum dedicated a major exhibition to this autobiographical dimension of his work. Its 288 page catalogue included an essay by Filippo Maggia, the curator who would also work on Araki's permanent installation in Vicenza. [6]

The Japanese concept of shishashin (私写真), personal or autobiographical photography, helps explain the relationship between these works and the recreated Shinjuku room. Araki used the camera to document his relationships, memories, desires and everyday existence. His books became one of the most recognisable expressions of that intensely personal approach to photography. At Fondazione Bisazza, visitors can encounter several parts of this career in one permanent installation, from images of Tokyo to the objects of his private social world.

WHY SHINJUKU CAME TO VICENZA

Piero Bisazza wanted something that would remain after the exhibition closed.

He travelled to Tokyo, met Araki and worked with him on the design of a permanent room for the Foundation. For its inspiration, they chose one of the photographer's familiar addresses in Shinjuku: the Rouge Bar, an elegant nightclub where Araki often arranged meetings after his photographic sessions. [1] The result was unveiled in 2019 as Love-Dream, Love-Nothing, curated by Filippo Maggia. Interni, Area and the Foundation itself describe it as the world's first permanent installation devoted to Araki's work. [5][8] The choice of Shinjuku is especially revealing. Araki has spent decades photographing the people, interiors, streets and intimate encounters of Tokyo. The private room recreates part of the social world that accompanied his photographic career. For travellers who know the photographer through his Tokyo images, the Vicenza installation offers a rare encounter with an environment designed in collaboration with Araki himself.

INSIDE THE TWO PRIVATE ROOMS

The first room recreates the intimacy of the Rouge Bar. An oval sofa surrounds a central table. Exhibition posters and photographs refer to Araki's career. The furnishings recall the Tokyo original, although the Italian installation was conceived as a new version rather than a literal copy. [1] Facing it is a second private room, arranged as a library in homage to Araki's prolific career as a photographer and publisher.

The photographer has produced more than 500 books, including artist books, monographs and exhibition catalogues. His reputation as one of Japan's great photobook makers is an essential part of the installation. Among the books and display objects are small model dinosaurs, a wonderfully eccentric detail. Similar creatures have appeared in Araki's photographic compositions, introducing an element of humour into images that can otherwise be intensely personal or provocative. [1] The walls contain photographs originally created for Bisazza alongside works acquired by the Foundation, including images associated with Tokyo, 21.02.2009, 67 Shooting Back, Suicide in Tokyo and Araki-graph: Hot-spring Romance.

These rooms preserve a particular aspect of Araki's world: the places, objects and images surrounding a photographer whose life in Tokyo has been inseparable from his art.

THREE ORIGINAL JAPANESE CALLIGRAPHIES

For the permanent installation, Araki also created three works using shodō (書道), traditional Japanese brush calligraphy. The pieces were commissioned in 2019 and take up themes that have occupied his photography for decades: love, femininity, desire, flowers, beauty and mortality. [1][8] The titles are Fanatismo Femminile, “Female Fanaticism”; Lo Spirito della Fioritura, “The Spirit of Blossoming”; and Amore-Sogno, Amore-Nulla, “Love-Dream, Love-Nothing”. These original calligraphies make the Vicenza room particularly interesting for Japanese art enthusiasts. Araki's own brushwork appears alongside the photographs, extending his visual language into another traditional Japanese artistic practice.

VISIT ARAKI’S ONLY PERMANENT INSTALLATION

WHERE CAN YOU SEE NOBUYOSHI ARAKI’S ONLY PERMANENT INSTALLATION?

Love-Dream, Love-Nothing is part of the permanent collection of Fondazione Bisazza, in Montecchio Maggiore, Vicenza province, Italy.

The installation opened in 2019 and was conceived by Araki and Piero Bisazza, with curatorial direction by Filippo Maggia.

IS THE INSTALLATION FREE TO VISIT?

Yes. Fondazione Bisazza offers free admission with advance reservation. Its regular opening days are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from 11:00 to 18:00.

The booking calendar is updated monthly. Check for seasonal closures and special openings before travelling. [9]

CAN YOU TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS?

Visitors may photograph and film the collection for personal, noncommercial use. Professional photography, tripods and commercial filming require prior authorisation from the Foundation. [10]

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU SEE?

The Foundation's permanent collection includes monumental installations by Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, Jaime Hayon and Marcel Wanders.

Its architectural photography collection also includes works by Hiroshi Sugimoto, offering another Japanese photography connection within the same destination. [11]