Paper Doors

We get a bit closer to Japan every day - given the ferocius pricing competition between low-cost airlines - but our disconcern and curiosity for this far-away culture seems to hang on strong.

Not only its origami birds, hanging kabuki bodies, cameras and artifacts with names from mountains like Fuji or oceans like Sanyo. Also familiar are the delicate sake bouquet or, given health and safety warnings, the unfrozed salmon in nigirizushi.

But Japan is more than that. The West has always looked on wide-eyed towards that archipelago, and now Fundació Caixa Catalunya and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France bring over 150 pieces of ukiyo-e , very popular xylographs between the 17th and 20th centuries, to add to our vision of that distant land.

Apart from the bold but oh-so delicate strokes in each piece, closer to calligraphy than to the rough European engravings, we'll be open-mouthed at the precision with which the Edo masters(now Tokyo) revealed the details of day to day life not only through landscapes or sumo matches but also by digging into the rooms of the red-light districts, with some of the most beautiful works of erotic porn. Without prejudice.

Ukiyo-e, imágenes de un mundo efímero
La Pedrera, P. de Gràcia 92.
Lun-dom, 10-20h
Entrada libre
Hasta el 14 de septiembre

By JCA