"When I was a child, painting and drawing was what made me feel free." The artist Mari Ito recalls those hours of mental flight that freed her from the agonizing pressure of Japanese school entrance exams. Sitting on the terrace, she sips a morning cup of coffee with milk and enjoys the silence. "When I paint is when I express myself completely: my ideas, my feelings, my sensations. All of me," she adds.
The bulk of her work is based on a sum of bordering concepts: desire, will, and determination. "I am interested in the association of these concepts with the idea of swimming, floating, or sinking, which is reflected, for example, in my self-portraits where I appear in a golden swimsuit, and which precisely evoke that idea of diving into what I want and desire."
Another constant in her work are flowers. "I paint them because, in Japanese, we use the expression 'to have a flower,' hana ga aru, in allusion to someone charismatic or especially charming. Even so, I think that each person has a different, unique type of charm. That's why, in my works, I represent different imaginary flowers, as a symbol of that diversity of attractions that exist in each human being." From the sum of desirabilities.
All of this, added to the need to locate herself in space-time, "that's why I often appear in my own works as a resource to indicate the place and moment in which they were created." She sips a mouthful of coffee. "Sometimes I think that, if one day I couldn't use my iPhone, if the Internet disappeared or I didn't have a calendar at hand, perhaps I would stop knowing what moment I am living in. Precisely for that reason, I draw myself as I am now." The desire to mark the now, to leave a record of the present.
The life of this contemporary artist, who mixes traditional Japanese techniques and pigments with local colors, in a powerful amalgam of ancestral Asian knowledge and Mediterranean joy and color, has been a bit like this: marked by the ability to navigate the currents and tides to which her will has led her.
Tokyo-Vienna-Barcelona
"When I lived in Tokyo, I already wanted to leave," to see other cultures, other worlds," explains Mari Ito who, following her aspiration to dedicate herself to Art, began her studies of traditional Japanese painting, "in a university that only admitted women!" But the need to fly far was already there and, "after two years learning German, I moved to Vienna to study Fine Arts, attracted by its School of Fantastic Realism." A movement that explores, through works between the allegorical and surrealism, aspects consubstantial to the human experience ---spirit, soul, existence--- by artists such as Arik Brauer, Alex Grey, or Rudolf Hausner.
"However, I soon realized that, despite its incredible museums and great artistic legacy, Vienna was not my place." After a couple of months, Mari returned to Tokyo in search of a plan B. "Then, a gallerist told me why not try Barcelona." No sooner said than done. She started studying Spanish and, a few months later, flew to the city. It was February 2006. "I immediately knew this was my place," she recalls with a wide smile, although at first, not everything was good news. "The university here did not validate my studies in Japan, so in the end, I couldn't study Fine Arts." Thus, she immediately started painting, producing.
After about two years, after pounding the pavement of several galleries with her portfolio, she debuted with her first exhibition at Zenbu. Since then, everything has more or less rolled along for the artist who has exhibited in Barcelona, Zaragoza, Tokyo, and New York and who is especially proud of when "after seeing the mural I had painted in 2017 for the Universitat metro station, in 2020 they called me from AFANOC to do one in the Casa dels Xuklis." And she blinks expressively, before adding: "I don't usually paint thinking about transmitting joy to people, but when people tell me that my works transmit positive energy to them, that they recharge their batteries... well, I really like it!"
Deeply integrated into the city's artistic fabric, she is preparing her next installation for the Palo Alto Foundation in September: "a four-meter sculpture made of fabrics and shaped like an atomic cloud, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. Something that society must not forget, and even less so now."
Open-minded city
After nineteen years in Barcelona, the artist's relationship with the city is one of pure love. "It's my home, my house, with this light that makes colors seem more vivid, that adds depth and multidimensionality." But there's something more. A matter of mentality, of way of being. Of aesthetic appetite capable of devouring the best of every house. "I love that a Japanese sculptor, Etsuro Sotoo, is on the team working on the expansion of the Sagrada Familia. For me, that is proof that this is a very open-minded city. In Japan, something like that would be unthinkable!" she laughs, finishing the remnants of her coffee.
--- What would be unthinkable is that, with you here, and lunchtime approaching, you would miss the gastronomic offer of this Bar…
Mari Ito cannot suppress a hint of a laugh.
--- I really like the concept of the daily menu--- she replies.
And she takes a few seconds, before adding, without losing her smile:
--- Although after so many years in Barcelona I still can't get used to the meal times… Here people eat so late!