In Milan, a tribute exhibition to Hayao Miyazaki, the great Japanese director

In Milan, from Jan. 3 to Feb. 11, 2024, Soggettiva Gallery dedicates an exhibition-tribute to Hayao Miyazaki, the great Japanese director: titled My Neighbor Miyazaki and the Orient, the exhibition is meant to be a tribute to the extraordinary filmography of the filmmaker who co-founded Studio Ghibli, a worldwide reference point for lovers of film animation. Coinciding with the theatrical release of The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki’s new film that has broken all records by grossing, in its first weekend of release, more than $11 million in Japan and nearly $13 million in the United States, the exhibition brings together Alternative Movie Posters by international artists and illustrators who see the Japanese master as a key source of inspiration for their artistic production.

The works on display will shed new light on major Studio Ghibli production titles such as The Enchanted City (a huge commercial success with more than $400 million grossed worldwide), revised through the garish tones of blue, red andblue by Belgian Mainger and the metaphysical one by American architect Bailey Race, Ponyo on the Cliff, represented by Chris Koeler’s kaleidoscopic and swirling work, Princess Mononoke, which the award-winning Zi Xu offers us through a choral portrait of magical creatures and masks typical of Japanese tradition.

Among Miyazaki’s films to which audiences are most attached is My Neighbor Totoro: the exhibition will feature Jordan Bolton’s highly detailed and manic versions dedicated to “props,” and Le Nevralgie Costanti, which offers exclusively for Soggettiva Gallery a sweet and iridescent depiction of Totoro.

In addition, from January 16, the exhibition will be expanded with a rich selection of works that draw on the myth of the Orient, the gravitational center of a poetics that is still an object of great fascination for Western audiences, not least because of its ability to reflect an image that is often far removed from the West’s perception of itself. Two prime examples are Miyazaki’s films such as Porco Rosso and The Wandering Castle of Howl: emblematic of the former is Fabiocs’s work depicting the protagonist aboard his airplane (Miyazaki’s father was an aeronautical engineer), while two dreamy versions of the latter will be exhibited by renowned engraver Dan Grissom.

Among the elements that have most attracted the attention of the artists in the exhibition are the diverse and highly sought-after Oriental graphics. There are in fact several Alternative Movie Posters that juxtapose the imagery of great Western film classics with the use of words written in Chinese, Japanese or Korean alphabets: among the most representative works of this genre are those created by the American collective Rucking Fotten, known for the very limited periods with which it makes its works available, of which a selection of 8 titles will be on display, including A Clockwork Orange, Warriors of the Night and Rosemary’s Baby.

Another trend is to create a mixture, and thus a short circuit, between Western and Eastern imagery: Steve Bialik’s Ninja Star Wars, Mark Bell’s reinterpreted version of Jaws (in which the shark merges with one of the world’s most famous images, the Japanese painter Hokusai’s woodcut titled The Great Wave of Kanagawa), or the works of Jed Henry, a fine illustrator who uses only handmade Japanese paper: his two versions of Star Wars and The Enchanted City.

Also on display are masterpieces of Japanese animation and comics that have been revisited and transformed into Alternative Movie Posters: this is the case of Godzilla, seen through the eyes of Max Dalton and, exclusively for Soggettiva Gallery, of the Bolognese Francesco Casolari; to Akira, are dedicated the refined works of renowned artists such as the Van Orton and the American Anthony Petrie, affasmed by topographies and maps.

Finally, highbrow names of classical Japanese cinematography such as Akira Kurosawa (a work by BRVM inspired by The Drunken Angel is on display) and Yasujiro Ozu (Frenchman Tom Haugomat focused on Journey to Tokyo) but also more recent masters of Eastern cinema could not be missed: illustrator Silvia Cocomazzi worked for Soggettiva Gallery on the films of Wong Kar-wai, while other artists chose to rework the films of South Korean directors such as Bong Joon-ho(Parasite, The Host, Memoirs of a Murderer) and Park Chan-wook(Oldboy).

In Milan, a tribute exhibition to Hayao Miyazaki, the great Japanese director

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