The Momiji Projects

video draft for the project

2010-03-15T03:58:00.000-07:00

First draft: it's a video that I would like to project from the inside onto window so that it can be seen from the oustide.
My idea is creating a sort of reversed zen garden-like view.
When I went to Japan I was amazed by the beauty of zen gardens and the interesting way of framing the view of the garden by ising horizontal sliding doors or "windows"
I thought 'well, I could reverse the thing and see what happens...'

What we shared so far

2009-12-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

So far I got many leaves from many friends from many different places in the world.
I didn't receive just leaves though, I received also letters, poems, stories, memories from childhood, words of encouragement, pictures, drawings, postcards and even some parmisan cheese from US
(I have to say that was the funniest thing ever: an italian cheese imported to US and then sent to Japan!).

The Momiji Project has been a beautiful experience and keeps giving me new stimuli. Everytime I looked at the leaves lying so fragile in my hands, I looked also at the friends who sent them to me.
There is something magical in a letter, in reading words written by hand on a page of a notebook, or on a postcard or behind a picture or on a fine letter paper, in touching the creases, in opening... creeeeaaaak....the envelope, in thinking of someone sitting at the table or standing in the post office and writing writing writing for you. And there is something magical in waiting for a letter and of course in sending one back.
I sent to everyone a card with a momiji leaf.

I hope you all received my autumn and my words

At the moment I'm working on the pictures of the momiji tree that I've been taking (almost) everyday since september. I'm preparing a video. More info later on!

Thank you all!

The 28th Leaf: Florent from Francoville in France

2009-12-20T08:03:00.000-08:00

One year ago just after Xmas Florent and I were dragging a Xmas tree abandoned in Argyle Street, in Glasgow, all the way to Florent's flat.
I really wanted a xmas tree and Florent helped me in my weird plan. I think it was the 28th or something like that. The flat started smelling amazingly...fresh pinetree! of course twas quite difficult to find balls and all that sort of stuff that usually people put on such trees as xmas was already gone and people were "marketingly" thinking in terms of new year's eve.
But we made it and in one afternoon we tree was done and beautiful.
And this is Florent's autumn in a winter night

It's a leaf from Champs Elyseés, a memory of "Autumn's Leaves" a jazz song that Florent used to play with his dad.

The 27th Leaf, James from California

2009-12-19T21:52:00.000-08:00

The train was full of people and really smelly. It was hot, and it was May I think, or end of April, on a train in India, when and where I met James. He made me smile and talked to me for the whole journey till Nepal. He offered me food, music and good feelings.
India is strange. It's so big but you keep meeting the same people everywhere you go or anyway you know that sooner or later you will bump into someone you like or you don't like again.
Well, after months I met James again, in Delhi this time. He was at the end of his adventure, while I was at the beginning of a new one, this time really on my own. He was going back home and I was going to the Himachal Pradesh and then Kinnaur and Spiti.
We had the weirdest dinner ever, in a mexican restaurant in new delhi with indians dressed up with weird clothes, american music in the background and loads of beer.
That was definetely a fun night. We haven't seen since then. But now I can see his autumn

just one last thing. Life is really really really strange. And Random I have to say. I was publishin this post and the radio (in Japan) started to play an indian song "Mundian to Bach Ke Punjabi". Synchronicities....

The 26th Leaf: Thommy from Edinburgh

2009-12-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

I don't exactly remember the very first moment I saw Thommy, but I remember it was in Gagie at the castle where I was WWOOFing in summer 2006.
It's so amazing that it's been already more than 3 years since Scotland became a sort of second home for me and I danced with Thommy in a club in Dundee.
Thommy is my scottish mum's daughter. Aye, I have a scottish mum of course. She looked after me and taught me many things while I was working for her in the castle. While her daughters looked after me in Edinburgh where I spent I think the hottest summer Scotland ever had in ages. I went back the following year thinking it would be pretty the same...and indeed I was wrong.... Thommy is an amazing cook and a really sweet person. When I think of her the first things coming up are golden curly hair, honest smile, the color blue and pheasants.

these are her leaves from the Meadows

A projection on campus

2009-12-15T05:14:00.000-08:00

Amy and I are doing some projections on campus.
I made a video using the pictures I've been taken everyday at "my" Momiji Tree and then projected it in onto a momiji tree -one on campus, now naked for the winter. The video, I have to say, is not one of the best but you can see my projection on the right.

The video shows the color of the leaves changing across the last 4 months...from green to red and then again from red to green in loop.
Amy projected a swimming man along the canal that goes across the whole campus (you can see her projection on the left)

The 25th Leaf: from Lucy and John, Glasgow

2009-12-15T01:55:00.000-08:00

Autumn is over I think, just a few red leaves are still on the naked trees here in Japan. It's winter, hey! but still leaves keep coming to me. And memories too.

The last leaf is from Lucy and John, two of my students from the italian class I held last winter in Glasgow. I've never had such a great class. I loved the nice evenings in May and June spent drinking together before class in the beer garden next to the school or the big laugh we had all the time.
And I can't believe it: they ask me to come back and teach again. Thank you Lucy and John!
I'm looking forward to it!

The 24th Leaf: From a friend of a friend...

2009-12-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine talked about my project to a girl in his same course and she wanted to take part in it too. So she sent me a leaf from Cambridge University which "she wanted to visit for many years".

A wee story and a wee leaf from someone I don't even know. This is the perfect gift indeed!

The 23rd Leaf: Fabio, Milano

2009-12-01T05:56:00.000-08:00

I was drawing, I think, when Fabio came into the room to see what we were doing.
I was doing a kind of art evening class in Milan with a small bunch of people I never saw in all my life.
I think it was winter. I'm not sure. But I remember that it was cold on the bike.

I don't know very much about Fabio because I left quite soon after we met and we haven't seen for so long.

And for sure he does not know much about me either.

But with his leaves from the vineyard he's used to go to since he was little he gave me a part of his memories and a chance to get to know him a wee bit more.

The 22nd Leaf: Lenka, Glasgow

2009-12-01T05:40:00.000-08:00

I don't remember if it was raining when I met Lenka, because it happened when we were both under a roof (in the flat we would have shared for one year), and not in the street where I usually meet the most interesting people ever.

Nonetheless Lenka prooved to be something even more than interesting: a real friend, I'd even say a sister.

We spent so many hours talking...or maybe me talking 80% her listening 80% (the remaining 20% for me is listening while eating; the remaining20% for her is talking while cooking)...she cuddled me, made my hair, baked a cake for my birthday, laughed at all my stupid stories and even did proofreading for my homeworks.

She sent me the most amazing letter ever that I can't show on internet as I dont want to be banned by the chinese servers, with a beautiful leaf. It looks like a heart and it's got my name on it!

getting red: stills from a process

2009-11-25T06:09:00.000-08:00

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

The 21st Leaf: Dylan, form Australia

2009-11-22T02:31:00.001-08:00

Dylan is a beautiful gift that Nepal gave me.
I met him in a nice garden at the back of a guest house in Kathmandu more than one year ago by now.
We kept meeting each other in so many places and after long periods of time. Even in delhi we managed to meet by chance.
He's been an amazing friend and even took my big italian ass up and down the himalayan mountains on his motorbike. Poor thing: "she" almost died!
We flew over the top of amazing mountains that I would have never ever imagined they could exist, and we touched the soft sand of the white desert in Nubra Valley, cooked weird vegetables in a wee pot that we brought with us and look at the most incredible and shining stars I've ever seen.

He is back in Australia now. He sent me many leaves wrapped in a smiling yellow tissue paper together with a drawing and a letter. One of the leaves is from a magnolia tree. I love this kind of tree, its leaves, its flowers and the smell they have.

The 20th leaf: Luca, from Glasgow

2009-11-22T02:25:00.000-08:00

I was outside the school where i used to teach italian in Glasgow, talking with one of my students, when this guy with a hoodie asked us some help. He was looking for a flat and I was really late for a dinner party.
Of course we didnt know where that street he was asking about was and of course (again) it started raining cats and dogs.
Of course, I say, because nobody never knows directions when they are asked and because in Scotland there are 2 seasons: winter and July and in Glasgow it always, or almost always, rains.

He was italian too.
Not so strange though, as italians are everywhere.

He changed my life, a lot.

I don't know why but I keep meeting important people on the streets of glasgow.

His leaf is the first one he found on the streets when I asked him a leaf. He is a very cheeky guy, I have to say.

the leaf in the leaf....

19th Leaf: Anonymous from Milan

2009-11-01T03:56:00.000-08:00

The other day I got these 2 leaves from the post office in Milano Borromeo.

I dont know who sent me the letter.

Anonymous leaves.

A Wedding at the tea house

2009-11-01T03:34:00.000-08:00

Today I happened to be in the middle of a traditional japanese celebration for a wedding.

The bride was stunning and radiant, glowing with a shy and reserved smile, looking down and then up very briefly, while she was walking into the tea house with her husband.

Her red umbrella was almost shaking my heart and my eyes on the green background given by "my" momiji tree and near to the white dress of the bride.

Another little gift from the place to me and my project.

Getting known by the neighbourood: a step further

2009-11-01T02:50:00.000-08:00

The other day I was trying to set the camera in the right position on my wobbely super cheap tripod, when an old man came with a big smile and said "good picture?"

Well, I said, I hope so.

"ok you come with me, the owner is my friend, you take beautiful pictures inside please!"

So, the guy took my tripod and my bags and started walking in the tea house. Because, yes, it's a traditional tea house the place I'm taking pictures of.

I get through the wooden gate and an incredible world welcomes me. All of a sudden the noise of the streets, with its cars and big trucks and bikes and people walking and talking, stops. And the soft sound of the water flowing in a wee river underneath the path starts tickling my ears.

So beautiful. So peaceful.

That man gave me a little pearl.

Getting known by the neighbourood

2009-11-01T02:35:00.000-08:00

It's been 2 months since I started the Momiji Project and 2 months since I started taking pictures of "my" momiji tree.

At the beginning people did not notice me but my big camera and my big tripod that I carried all the way down by bike on my shoulders. People at the bus stop would not look at me that much but at my lenses and would listen to the sound of the zip of the bags I use to carry everything with me, following my movements with curiosity and maybe wondering "what is she doing?". Then they would all look at the place I was starting to photograph and then they would talk to each other, maybe about it and then look at it again and sometimes take pictures of it too.

Later on I started being approached by the old men living in the neighbourhood accompanied by their silent wives, who would ask me things about me, my name, my country, what I'm doing here in Japan, what I'm studying, are you working? how old are you? what's your parents' job? ah you live here? why? and is the picture good? is it good light now? eh? is it good? ooooh you use japanese camera, good good good. Japanese ichiban (the best)....

People were starting talking about me, in that place, everyday, every morning at the same time (almost, hey). Taking pictures in the same spot. What's so interesting in there?

THe momiji tree. Its colors, from shades of green to full red and then nothing again.

But you have to wait this year, miss. It's been too hot for too long. The leaves are dying and maybe the red color will come out at the end of november.

I'll wait. I'll wait.

It's a project of patience. I'm learning to be patient. I've always been eager and greedy. I need to learn to wait, and how to wait.
Wait for the time passing, for opportunities rising and falling, for friends and love to leave me and come again to me, or actually I shouldn't learn how to wait but how to observe the flow of things and minutes and movements and people and and and...

The 18th Leaf: Fabio

2009-10-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

I met Fabio on the plane to Milan.

I was bored and sad and I wanted to talk with someone. I'm a very talkative person. Unfortunaley or luckily? I still don't know, I guess it depends on many things...

Anyway, I started talking with him, while I was going back to Italy. I did really need to talk with someon and he cheered me up.

We met again.

In Glasgow this time.

We spent one night talking till dawn. He bought me oranges. I was so ill that night. I came back home at 6 am I think. I don't remember.

on that night I recorded a bird singing because decepted by the artificial light of the city.

I remember. Do you remember?
That night was so surreal, many sounds, many words, many thoughts. Incredible how much you can share with someone you met only once.

his leaf is from a street in Genove. Both its sides are made by trees that are now changing their colors. This is his autumn.
I have to see this street, and his Genova

The 17th Leaf: German

2009-10-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

I was in Ladakh when I met German. Well, WE were in Ladakh when WE met.

A meeting is not something that happened to ONE person.

People meet because they share a place and a moment. By chance maybe. Sometimes on purpose.
It was by chance between me and German. A friend of mine met him earlier in Nepal and then by chance we happened to be the three of us in the same place in the same moment. This is German, please to meet you, Silvia.

One night we met again, this time because we planned it and he showed us the pictures he took in his travelling. We were sitting in the garden of a nice and peaceful guesthouse in Leh. We ended up talking about many things and sharing experiences and impressions of memories of India.

And we are still doing that.

Actually he is chatting with me now.

He sent me beautiful leaves from Switzerland where he is living at the moment. But not only that. Also warm words and pictures of the amazing land where we met. His prints are so delicate and rich of dreams.

The 16th Leaf: Fabio

2009-10-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

I met Fabio in a funny way. Well, actually all the most interesting people I met in my life are the ones I met in a wierd way. A very random way!

Many of my best friends are people I met on the street.

Or on the plane

Or in strange ways...as it happened with Fabio.
I was living in Edinburgh and it was really hard time for me. Many things went wrong and I didn't have enough money to live there. So I looked for different jobs. But my english wasn't good enough and being an immigrant in general is not an easy thing job-wise. Eventually I managed to find a job in a night club in the city center. I was doing anything: preparing cocktail, pouring beer (very badly hey!), cleaning, glass collecting and so on. One night some guys came to the bar and in one second I recognized the italian accent. We talked a bit and then they went away.

after a few weeks I was checking Gumtree to see if I could find free shiatsu massage somewhere as my back was so sore.

I was looking for someone I could trust and I bumped into a message from a guy whose name sounded kinda italian. I thought I could talk with him easier than with a scottish guy. I wrote to him, we took an appointment, I went to his house, knocked at the door, looked at this "?" person and !!! we met before! where? ah yes, in the club, ah yes you were in that group of guys, no! you do shiatsu? yes i like it ...

well i talked so much that night that at the end we ended up having dinner together and becoming friends.
He cooked for me amazing things,he helped me many times, we spent very nice evenings together.

A good friend indeed.

The last time we had the best pizza ever in Edinburgh.

Shiatsu next time (?)

His leaf is from the Meadows, a nice park in Edinburgh. I spend very nice evenings and days there.

The 15th Leaf: Beba

2009-10-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

I've known Beba since I was in my mum's womb.

When I was little I used to spend the whole summer in her house in Sardinia, an island in the south of Italy.

...I remember the white sand of the dunes along the blue sea, and the juicy peach that my mum would give me as a snack in the afternoon but I wanted the panini with salami and instead I had that peach, now I would like to eat a peach actually, and then the peach would attract all the wosps nearby and then its juice would drip down my chin and neck and then become sticky and then yes yes let's go to the sea, let's swim a bit more before the sun goes down and the sand gets cold again and all the heat goes into the light blue water with grey fishes and many many seashells, that every year I collected and ever year forgetting them somewhere before going back to Milan, to school, to another autumn and winter...

Beba is part of my childhood, and part of my best memories.

And now she is also part of my present and I am part of her thoughts. For a moment. A moment for picking up a leaf for me, and send it all the way to Japan.

The 14th Leaf: Sarah

2009-10-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

In 2006 I decided I should learn english and went to Scotland for that...

I wanted to apply for a Psychotherapy school in Milan that requires the knowledge of English as in third year some people from abroad would come and teach.

So, I went to Dundee and worked in a farm for a few months.

I learnt Scottish.
I buried sheep.
I planted snowdrops.
I fell in love.
I cried.
I went to yoga class.
I got drunk in the park with Lambrini and Buckfast.
I pierced my ears.
I travelled around.
I saw deers.
I went to the Ocean.

And i decided I would go back and live there.

So, that's where I live now, well apart from this break in Japan.

It was in this crazy scottish summer, the best in ages, when it rained only 3 days in total or something like that, that I met Sarah. She was working with me. She watched Italy winning the World Cup with me. And she danced with me in the garden and baked amazing cakes and bread for everybody.

Now she is in China, in a place called the Eternal Spring. Well, she said it's kinda difficult to find an autumnla leaf there. But as autumn means "chestnuts, persimmons, roasted squash and the smell of wood fired ovens" she managed to find a leaf of chestnut and a bamboo leaf too as "together they paint the city with autumn spirit".

I like that.

The 13th Leaf: Roman

2009-10-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

It was almost Summer when I met Roman in Kalpa.
He was sitting at the terrazza, making Mala for his friends and looking at the beautiful mountains of Kinnaur.

We were in Himachal Pradesh. He was at the end of his journey and I was right in the middle of mine, ready to go to Spiti and then Ladakh. I didn't know Roman, but we felt like we had known each other for long time and then ended up getting drunk together in a local inn drinking the kinnaur plum wine...yes I think it was plum wine.
It's so interesting that in many places in Asia alcohol is made by plums and fruit like apricots while I've always been used to drink stuff made with grape, I mean wine. In Japan too, they use plum. In fact Umeshu (alcol made with plums) is very popular here.

So, going back to Roman, he left soon and I left too. He went back to Israel where he lives now and I went on with my travelling.

We haven't seen since then

But now I have one leaf from his autumn: a FIG LEAF.

The 12th Leaf: Izumi

2009-10-16T01:44:00.000-07:00

Izumi is a Japanese artist who fell in love with Italy so much that she decided to love an italian man as well and have EVEN babies with him.

And I can understand why... Italy, well, Italy is my Country, I love it. Great food, great weather, great cities. No job though. And bad bad politics. And I would add too much selfishness.
But what to do: nothing is perfect! and imperfection can (I repeat it: CAN) lead to perfection. While perfection is just stasis, death. Isn't it?

I met Izumi long long long time ago in Piacenza at a party. I loved her from the first second. And from the first second I knew she would stay in Italy for long time.

Now she is expecting a baby, Nami, which means Wave in Japanese. I saw her belly a couple of weeks ago and it's growing fast!
I wish you the best, Izumi.

The 11th Leaf: Angus

2009-10-16T01:36:00.000-07:00

Angus was one of my students of the italian language class in Glasgow this year.
He loves languages and he gave me really hard times as he was speaking French instead of Italian all the time!!! (I'm joking Angus!).

I was so happy to receive his leaf and his lovely letter about his new life in England.

He also sent me a postcard with a picture of the church he sees from his window

He sent me the letter the day he started the italian class in Yorkshire and the leaf he chose for me is from the outdoor sculpture trail of the Burton Agnes Hall. He thought that a leaf from an art gallery "would be very appropriate" for my project.

And it is indeed, Angus.

I love how eveybody sent me not just a leaf but a "little piece" of their "story" and life. Well, life is a story that we tell to ourselves and to everybody, I think.

this is the leaf:

The 10th Leaf: Alexandra

2009-10-16T01:22:00.000-07:00

I met Alexandra so long ago by now. And it's funny because we physically met a few times while I feel like I spent with her so much time, actually doing things together.

This is one of the situations in which I realize how internet is an actual "place". So untouchable and so real at the same time. A place where you can keep watering the plant of friendship if you want to.
Strange, wierd, odd maybe. But that's the way it is. At least for me.

So, me and Alex keep meeting on internet and miss each other in the "real" (is it more real, then????) world. In India, in France, in Italy. Everywhere. But Skype or Gmail are the place where we still manage to meet. A place-no-place, with its own time-no-time.

With my project I'm exploring a different connection. A connection where place and time are place-here and place-there, time-here and time-there. Actual place and actual time of/for waiting-expecting-thinking of the Other.

Alexandra is an artist based in France. This is the LINK to some of her work.

Grazie Alex!

The 9th Leaf: Elisa

2009-10-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

Elisa was my classmate at high school.

She used to sit at the desk in front of me. Last row me and Marco, of course. In front of us Elisa and Anna.
Old times. I miss them sometimes.
I loved high school a lot, but already talked about it in the third leaf post I think.

So, Elisa's autumn leaf is the invitation to her wedding. I'm not gonna be there. I'm missing all my friends' important moments and that's quite sad.

I missed weddings, babies, graduations, the first house....so many things.

I miss my friends

The eighth leaf: a box from dad and mum

2009-10-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I come back home and I see on the letter box a post-it with written "your package is being hold by the caretaker"

A PACKAGE!!!!

I started thinking of all the incredible things I could have received

of course in the meantime I was running to the caretaker to get my box.

And the box was massive

uh yeah parmisan cheese parmisan cheese

but as I get the box...damn it's so light!!

.....ah right....my dad's writing....ah right....more leaves......

well, that's what I had asked for......

In the box there was the most impressive leaf I've ever seen

!!!!

The Seventh Leaf: from Galashiels, Alistair

2009-10-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

Alistair is the first scottish guy I talked with in my life.
Really, the very first one. I still remember very well the day I met him in Dundee, at yoga class. The sun was shining (very strange in Scotland indeed) through the big windows of the room and Alistair was in a kinda Lothus Position. I thought he was cute.

When he introduced himself I did not understand ANYTHING.

and I thought: am I in Germany?

Ah Scotland Scotland....

Well, he just sent me a leaf from the oak tree in front of his parents' house, the tree where he kinda dragged me on trying to make me overcome my fears of the height.

I still don't know if I overcome it...

I really like also the leaf on the first page of the card he sent me with the leaf. Very indian style!

The sixth leaf: Lorraine

2009-10-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

Lorraine sent me a very beautiful letter. The leaf was in a sandwich of drawings. The map of Italy on one paper and the map of Japan on the other paper: they were linked together not just by small yellow dots but in a way also by the leaf she sent me.

Which is really "a lovely cracking map of light" if you hold it up to the sky.

Well, sorry Lorraine but for this picture I had to use a horrible light in my room as there is a kind of Typhoon and the sun is not up in the sky at all..not even in my best dreams.

The fifth Leaf: Nao

2009-10-06T05:40:00.000-07:00

Nao is very easy to spot in my class in Glasgow. Why? Because she has long dark hair and she doesn't look scottish at all. She is from a little town near Tokyo, in Japan.

I spent almost a months with her and her nice friends there. I learnt the real basic japanese from her, uh yeah.

Her drawings are beautiful: in Italy we would say "she's got a golden hand".

So, now she is gonna be back to Glasgow while I'll be staying in Japan. Funny.
And in January we will maybe eat Ramen in the cold and windy Scotland...

The fourth leaf: mum and dad

2009-10-06T05:05:00.000-07:00

My parents.
That's a big massive chapter in the story of my life.
For several reasons: first of all because thanks to them and their love for each other I'm here (and what I'm saying it is not banal at all). Secondly because I lived with them for many years (very italian style) and they taught me a lot.

I'm very lucky. They always supported all my crazy things, ideas and projects, especially in the past 4 years.

But also when I got angry because my mum didn't bring me to school as she wanted to take me to the park instead and play with the snow (how idiot I was?!); or when I was crying because I couldn't draw the stupid perspective and my dad spent hours trying to teach me; or when I decided to work in a farm in Scotland for months or go to art school or travel in India for half a year, or when I really wanted to learn how to cycle and I asked my mum at the age of 4 or something like that to wake me up every morning early to practice on my own in the wee garden at the back of the building.

and now they are collecting leaves for me

"so..now me and dad go for a walk and together look for leaves for you. Dad is more interested in shape than color..."

I love that.

I love the idea of my parents walking together, having a chat about me and looking down for leaves and signs of Autumn.

The third Leaf: the beginning of Euan's Autumn from Glasgow

2009-09-29T02:18:00.000-07:00

The first time I saw Euan I thought he had a great beard, a great girlfriend, a great scottish accent and a great sense of humour.
He is the one who learned a lot of Italian from me. Very important stuff about slang such as Patatina and many other things for survival in my home country.

He sent me a page from a book he never manage to read. He always picks it up from the library at the begininng of summer and gives it back with many pages still unread at the beginning of Autumn.

So, this is his Autumn Leaf.

Thank you Euan

The Second Leaf is from Milan. Alessia's Autumn

2009-09-29T01:42:00.000-07:00

Alessia is one of my "oldest" friends ever. I think I spent more time with her during high School than with my family in all my life.
Many people tell me that the High School time is one of the worst period of their life while for me it's been I think the best one. Because of all the troubles and joys, the great mix of emotions that you can only get when you are growing up. When you still don't know who you are, when you are trying to be unique and at the same time not too different from all your friends.
(Well, I still don't know exactly who I am, because we all change, life is a process I think...but at least I kinda know what I want to be, what I don't want to be...oh God this is complicated....)

I loved going to school and then spend the afternoon with my friends or on my books, studying wierd things like ancient greek and human biology on the same day, or drinking Amaro Montenegro till I'd get drunk, and then waking up in the morning with people around me still drinking spirits and smelling like burnt sigarettes. And thinking "yeah we are so cool", while actually we were just kids who pined for being adults.

I loved crying because the guy I liked didn't even notice me the night before at the party of that girls I couldn't stand, and I loved the thrill before the exams and the giggles while the teacher was explaining Eraclito and going to the bar downstairs and playing guitar in the afternoon.

Alessia is the one who did all this with me but she is also the one who did not fade away with all the books and memories and people from high school. She is still with me.

She sent me this leaf, the stereotypical autumnal red-orange leaf as she called it.
Hehe! I love this colour. And stereotypes are such interesting things...

The first day, the first leaf! Paolo

2009-09-16T05:42:00.000-07:00

Today I officially started my project...well, I did the research for THE place in the last 2 weeks and I sent the collaboration letter to all my friends and family...but today I started going to the location I chose and took pictures. Every morning I will took a picture there.

I love the idea of starting a daily routine that is gonna last months and wait wait wait for the final result. It's definetely an art project based on WAITING. No immediate results. Not much control on it. Routine and freedom will be entwining.

I do love the idea that my routine maybe will meet someone else's routine thus creating a connection between me and who "live" that place everyday. But if this will happen, it will by chance.

And I do love being not too much in control but floating in a sea of chance and freedom. Freedom of the events and of the people who will take part in the project.

In fact a very nice coincidence happened today:
The first leaf from a friend arrived just today, when I started the project!

So a very first day today.

The first LEAF is from LONDON. The friend who sent it to me used it for an art project some time ago. That's such a cool and meaningful exchange.
Thank you!

Locations, locations, locations

2009-09-14T01:46:00.000-07:00

I've been wandering everywhere in order to find the right spot for my momiji project. I need to take a picture everyday. I'm always free in the morning as classes usually start at 1pm. So I need a place facing the sunrise with a nice momiji plant an space for the tripod.

I went in may places, in the mountains, around uni, down the road, in front of the dorms...but one place is the one I really love. I just need to check tomorrow morning early whether the light is good there in the morning or not.I like this one: the shape of the tree, it's bending down and entangling with other trees and different blends of green now and maybe red later makes my love it!

I asked around and a french guy studying Environmental Studies here asked his tutors about Maple tree (momiji) in the area. Apparently nearby there's a forest for reasearch purposes where many momiji are studied. But I need to get authorization in order to get in there everyday. Maybe I'll manage. It would be nice to try different locations.

Other places are nott too bad but I'm not convinced by the plant in itself or by its location in relation with the sun.

The one below is very pretty but it is in a cemetery and I dont feel like disturbing here with my tripod and my camera everyday, even though for 10 minutes

the one below is ok but my belly is saying "I dont' like it"...after all you need to love your project, don't u?

What

2009-09-12T09:37:00.000-07:00

the Momiji Project is a collaborative public art project "in fieri".

Collaborative, because it's not only me who will work on it. Also my friends and family have been invited to actively take part in it. Later on, depending on how the project will evolve and interact with the environment, an expanded public could be an active actor too. People are gonna affect the way the work will be, the way it will be shown and exhibited too.

Public, because it's not a project or an art work conceived and realized in the "void" of a white page in a sketchbook or of a white room of a studio (even though this image is kinda extreme). It's something that will emerge in the interaction with opportunities and restraints offered by the environment, let it be both physical and social-cultural.

In fieri, that is "being in a never ending process of change", because the freedom of the people involved, the changes of the weather and the light conditions during the day and across the next months and seasons will be active subjects of the project. Things can be planned in a way but these "plans" are just brief outlines on a map written in a language you don't know or anyway you are still trying to learn.

It's a project about connections and relationship across time and space.
it's a project about waiting and suspension of re-action
It's a project about contemplation

I asked my friend and my family to keep a leaf from their autumn and send it to me. I will do the same: keeping a autumnal leaf and send it to them.
Each leaf will mean time dedicated to wander about where one lives, look for the trees changing from a season to another, listening to the wind singing through the leaves thus getting aware of the (maybe habitual) environment around him or her. Each leaf it will mean time dedicated to a friend without immediate or anyway very fast feedback like in a chat or via email or phone call (looking for leaves, picking up one, putting in an envelope, going to the post office and sending it) and time dedicated to waiting for a reply or to thinking of a letter travelling across the world to reach a friend.
The exchange of leaves is a way of connecting places and times by using something slow like normal post and unpredictable like the colours of nature.

In the mean time I'll be working on something else "in situ", in a specific place and time of the day across the months I'll be here in Kyoto in order to create a site&time-specific work.
But I'll talk about it later....anyway it will involve taking a picture everyday in the same spot. That's why I'm looking for THE location. I love this part of an art work: researching and fantasizeing...a sort of daydreaming where everything is possible but still some attention is paid to the contraints of the environment. (we all bump against it...it's a kinda rite of passage I think)

Where ?????

2009-09-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

For now I'm considering

* Enkoji Temple
see here

* Momiji-no Tunnel

*Eikando Temple

look at that!

Any suggestion for the best spot for momiji in Kyoto? also...a place where I don't have to pay for entrance!

Looking for the place

2009-09-10T02:44:00.000-07:00

it's difficult to find the right place for my project. Time passes by, seasons change the landscape and the color of the trees in a way I cannot predict.
But this is part of the work too. Playing with the freedom of the pace and with the freedom of the people I involved in this project.

I want to take a picture everyday in a place where Momiji will come out.

I'm considering to ask the monks of one temple I really like if I can go to the temple everyday just for 10 minutes and then go away FOR FREE! I can't afford it to pay 600 yen everyday for 4 months.

Let's see

for now I really like Eikando temple, of Kibune shrine. But I'm kind of considering also Ninose station...
we wil see what I can do

Tomorrow I will cycle around. I don't have much time left. I need to hurry up. I know leaves are gonna be ready in Autumn but I want to start my project late this month with the Autumn equinoce.

http://www.att-japan.net/special/autumn2008/kinki.html

How it started

2009-09-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

Being far away from the people I love most is not easy but it's something I have been dealing with for a long time by now.

Internet has become the way I use to keep in touch with my friends and my family.

It's easy, fast, cheap, hey, but it makes eveything so muffled in a way.

When I realized I would go to Japan I started thinking of a project that would "involve" me completely in the place where I would stay. In its history and landscapes, in its people and streets.

But then I thought that "me" would mean all the people I shared something with. Experiences, caresses, stories, or just a smile.

That's how the Momiji Project started.