10 November 2021

MUSEC participates at WOPART, the international Art Fair devoted to works on paper

From 18 to 21 November, the MUSEC will be taking part in Wopart, the fair devoted to works on paper, offering the public a selection of extraordinary Japanese photographs chosen from among the thousands of the Yokohama School kept at the museum. The photographs of the "Ada Ceschin and Rosanna Pilone" Foundation were produced in Japan by European and local photographers between the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and were essentially created to satisfy the exotic tastes of tourists who were passionate about the Far East.


The images illustrate a world that in many cases was recreated to perfection in the photographic studios of the time: a world with an ancient flavour that in reality was fast disappearing under the influence of modernisation and westernisation.


The photographs in the exhibition present a recreated reality, but also the small ancient world of traditional Japan that was already in the process of being historicised.
Its protagonists, such as geishas, kendoka, sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors and samurai, to name but a few, offer Westerners an aesthetic vision of Japan, through artfully reconstructed scenes of everyday life and gender stereotypes in a society that is already in the process of being westernised.
gender stereotypes in a stratified society in the midst of change."

2021 wopart