There are moments that can be immortalized in eternity and transformed into infinity; countless one-day scenarios, set anywhere or nowhere. Being there in that instant, in that always. Listening, seeing and above all "hearing", remembering and abstracting at the same time: a breath of wind, the rustle of leaves, the breaking of the waves, the breath of the forest.

India ink glides over the oil paint, blends with it, creating suggestions and fades. Tempera defines and perfects this dialogue immersed in a fluid environment.

Kazuto Takegami's personal exhibition at Manifiesto Blanco is structured in an articulated exhibition itinerary that includes about 10 unpublished works set up on the wall, composed mainly in diptychs and made in oil, tempera and India ink, the mixed technique that most characterizes the works on artist's canvas. The glass overlooking via Benedetto Marcello is set up, for the occasion, in the form of a traditional Japanese shoji , decorated with Indian ink drawings and natural pigments. Finally, some ink drawings on paper complete the display. For the occasion, the gallery thus becomes a fluctuating and changing space, populated by marine landscapes and sylvan plots, which envelop the senses and accompany the visitor within the sweet and melancholy scenarios of brief moments made eternal by Takegami's pictorial art.

After graduating from Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Kazuto Takegami works as an art professor for a few years. At that time he decided to devote his life to painting. In 1998 he arrived in Italy thanks to a scholarship at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, the city where he lives and works. It is in the Italian and European context that he perfects oil painting, which he loves so much. The distance from Japan also allows him to rediscover his origins, leading him to deepen some traditional techniques such as Indian ink painting. He boasts numerous solo and group exhibitions especially in Italy, as well as in Europe and Japan.

Word to the artist: Kazuto Takegami

Explanatory notes on the exhibition

The exhibition is made up of elements in dialogue with each other , in an atmosphere of suspended time …

First of all there are two sections: the first, vertical , is dedicated to trees and in particular to the branches and their shapes which create particular suggestions in me. The second, horizontal , is an ode to the sea and to the gaze that is lost beyond the horizon. Trees and the ocean help us understand how sacred our living spaces are and to think of the wonder and amazement in simplicity: they are eternal, but changeable and complex, and I feel very close to them.

I have always greatly appreciated the form of the diptych which, symbolizing two parts of the same story, allows you to focus attention both on the whole and on each individual canvas that makes up the work. A dialogue is created between the two elements and, even if they appear separate, they represent a whole, complementing each other.

The news of the recent conflict in Ukraine suggested a further meaning to the form of the diptych: that of a world where differences can be valued but also coexist harmoniously. The separation of the two canvases is therefore not a division, but a line, almost a scar, which I would like to sew together to enjoy the beauty of the union of the two parts.

In most of the works on display I have inserted some human elements into the landscapes. They are almost always figures from behind, representing "one of us at that moment". I'm interested in capturing that instant within a timeless dimension.

Black , white , and the gray scale are for me a means of entering the world of the soul and of memory , and I use these colors in many of my works. The colors that characterize this exhibition of mine are placed on layers also painted with China ink, and therefore traces of gray, of previous memories, remain.

The use of color , which this time I used more, helps me relate to the present moment and current events. In sad or complicated situations, the renewed wonder that I find in the simplicity of the landscape consoles and restores me: it is as if an angel passed by. In this exhibition I have tried to express these emotions by reinterpreting the natural colors of the landscape.

Technically , in addition to mixing oil and ink (elements that "argue" with each other being oil and water) - a method already known to my audience and much loved and used by me - tempera painting appears. I have recently deepened the study of the mixed techniques of some Renaissance painters and other more modern ones, such as Fujita Tsuguharu for example. Using egg yolk – the binder par excellence in tempera painting – is very exciting for me, because it makes me feel close to many painters whom I respect and admire, allowing me greater expressive depth. Through the overlapping and mixing of these "ingredients" I would like to be able to create an enveloping sensation in my canvases, where one feels the "weight" of things. In this way I would like to create a bridge between oriental painting, traditionally flat, and western painting, characterized by monocular perspective and depth of field.