Telephone interview to Giacomo Mojoli (12-May-2010)
One of the founders of the Slow Food movement, and today a university professor and journalist, Giacomo Mojoli is also one of the biggest specialists of Japanese gastronomic culture. How did your passion for Japan come about?
My passion for Japan started over 25 years ago when I read Roland Barthes’ amazing book “The Empire of Signs” that describes this culture, and did so long before Japan became fashionable. But, it truly started because of another of my passions: tea, and specifically green tea. Because of the many visits I’d made to Japan, and the interesting people I’d met, from the Prime Minister Koizumi, to many ordinary working people such as farmers; simple people who showed me simply how to love their culture.
In a previous interview, you quoted Fosco Maraini’s expression “Japan is a mysterious place”. What do you consider to be the greatest characteristics of Japanese culture?
I think that what casts a particular spell in Japanese culture is the existence of a style in the approach to everyday routines. In Japan much attention is paid to the spirit of things. The Japanese treat “the substance” with great importance and the attention paid to this can be found in food, design and fashion. I think that this sensitivity can show us how to lead our lives in different and better ways.
Your deep knowledge of Japanese culture led you to discover Keiko Kato and Maika Masuko, two artists that relate stories from the world of wine with extraordinary photographs. How did you first meet them? What are the major features of their work?
I first met Keiko and Maika during the “Salone Internazionale del Gusto”, and then subsequently met them again in Tokyo, Kyoto and other Japanese cities, but I was especially lucky to have the opportunity to eat with them. Eating alongside two such cultured people gives one the opportunity to take a guided tour through their country. Drinking tea, or tasting sake and talking with them is like us tasting and talking with a great wine expert. The principal feature of their work is that they take only black and white photographs so as to penetrate their vision. And, they use rice paper for their images. I find that more than just an aesthetic beauty in their work, there is also a human one.
The pictures of Keiko Kato and Maiko Masuko portray winemakers they have met on their travels. To what extent can one discern a Japanese style in their work?
Decisively. Their photographs emphasise the human factor. For them, photography is an investigation, and because of this, before taking a photograph, Keiko and Maika talk to the subject of the portrait in order to understand they way they think and live. They assemble all the various components. The body becomes an expression of thought. Their idea of photography is that behind the image is something more explicit than words. This becomes like a handcrafted work, similar to a Japanese artisan who shapes ceramics or etches wood. I think that this is their hallmark, the general belief that the Japanese have about art, gestures and meanings.
The two artists will be present at Divingusto 2010 with their exhibition, “The Soil, the Vineyards, the Hands” from 24-25 July in Ceglie Messapica. How is their art connected to this festival and to the culture of Puglia more generally?
I think that the connection between these Japanese artists and the Divingusto festival is the territory, the earth. Puglia is where flavours, colours, history and the past seem to speak, but where the present and modernity can also be a sort of laboratory and a backdrop, especially for two artists like Maiko and Kelko.
Divingusto will show not only the established traditions of gastronomy and viticulture but the practical work behind the scenes as well. This is the real connection. Puglia and Japan are also joined together by attention to produce from the earth. In Japan and especially in cities like Kyoto or in the south, vegetables are very important. I think that for quality and for productive typologies, Puglia is the cradle of Italian biodiversity. Keiko and Maika are two photographers, two wine experts and also, thanks to many trips to our country, two experts on Italian gastronomy.
I therefore hope that this event can be a pioneer for the future. We should not forget that a territory gets strength from its identity, but in honour of this identity it should be ready to open up towards the outside.
We thank all the following artists for their pictures in the slideshow:
Le interviste
My passion for Japan started over 25 years ago when I read Roland Barthes’ amazing book “The Empire of Signs” that describes this culture, and did so long before Japan became fashionable. But, it truly started because of another of my passions: tea, and specifically green tea. Because of the many visits I’d made to Japan, and the interesting people I’d met, from the Prime Minister Koizumi, to many ordinary working people such as farmers; simple people who showed me simply how to love their culture.