Hana-mi | 2017

Aesthetics of the Ephemeral

The Hana-mi (literally, flower viewing) or the festival of cherry trees (sakura) in bloom is an important event in Japanese life. It makes people happy to contemplate the trees, covered with myriads of pink and white blossoms. After a short flowering period, the blossoms fall to the ground even before they have faded, blown off by the wind, forming a colourful carpet. The Hana-mi goes beyond mere aesthetic pleasures; it symbolises the passage of time, the impermanence of being and the cycle of life as expressed in Buddhism. The falling flowers evoke death, while the sadness is alleviated by the certainty that spring will return once again.

When the ceramist Margareta Daepp returned to Japan for a residency in 2017, she chose to go there in spring to experience this special moment, without the cherry trees being necessarily linked in any way to her artistic project. It was only towards the end of her stay that she devised this installation, as an emanation of the lived emotion.

The stylized and enamelled flowers are like a figurative abstraction of Hana-mi; they express the joy of life but also the inevitability of death. This installation, presented from 20 March to 13 May 2018 at the Musée Ariana, is an echo of the sakura blooming in the grounds near the Shinagawa bell.

Anne-Claire Schumacher,
Curator, Musée Ariana