Balloons flying everywhere. The famous animated film “Up” by Disney/Pixar comes to mind. Hundreds of colored balloons lift a house and make it fly, an opportunity to think back on the past, on relationships and dreams that should never be abandoned. The architect and designer Satoshi Itasaka seems to link back to that ideal: the balloons become works of art, and this time they lift mirrors and chairs, transforming into lamps and tables.
Here again, this playful element takes us elsewhere, however. Into that floating dimension we experienced as children, which resurfaces in the here and now with greater awareness, to observe the contemporary world with a different, perhaps more authentic gaze. This is the exhibition pathway of “The Floating Realm,” the exhibition by Satoshi Itasaka hosted at the IN’EI gallery in Venice until 20 August.
The IN’EI gallery, opened near the Rialto bridge to present artists and works from China, Japan and Korea, holds its second exhibition with Itasaka, produced in coordination with the 18th iteration of the Architecture Biennale. Satoshi Itasaka – winner of the Silver Prize for Lighting Products and Lighting Projects Design of A Design Award and founder of art studio h220430 in Tokyo – continues to pursue his design vision with “The Floating Realm,” with the purpose of boosting awareness of the most urgent problems of today’s society – from global environmental decay to the growing wealth-poverty gap – through a mixture of art, design and architecture. His new show offers an exceptional tool with which to approach everyday life, namely the fantasy and dreams of childhood.
Hence the Mushroom Lamp (part of the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), the Balloon Mirror or the Birth Lamp, which stop time and lead to an “other” place in which to linger, recharging the imagination.
“This exhibition was created with the intention of bringing back to life the ancestral feelings of joy, playfulness and dreams that, we hope, each of us experienced in our floating realm as a child,” Itasaka says.
The exhibition can also be accessed in the Metaverse, through the app Spatial, using the QR code that h220430 and IN’EI will provide on their social network channels.
Photo © gerdastudio
