For the Tokyo Olympics, Casa Italia is inspired by the Wunderkammer of the 1500s-'700s

A Casa Italia under the banner of art, as has been the case for some time now, for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The headquarters of the Italian delegation to this year’s Olympic Games in Japan, located ten kilometers from the Olympic Village and Main Press Center in the Minato-ku district of the capital, was unveiled yesterday. Casa Italia for these Olympics is based in The Kihinkan - Takanawa Manor House, an early 20th-century building characterized by Art Nouveau architecture and décor, and is fully financed by Coni’s Italia Team partners, as also happened for the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics and the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics.

This year the concept of Casa Italia is Mirabilia: “wonder,” the project presentation explains, “is the most authentic of emotions and allows us to enter a state of complete empathy with the world. It is the predisposition of the soul to be surprised that allows the birth of knowledge, and the beginning of everything, the point of contact between Italy and Japan, two cultures fascinated by a magical reciprocity.” The term “Mirabilia” is meant to cite the ancient Wunderkammer, the rooms of wonders where, between the 16th and 18th centuries, collectors collected works of art or pieces of craftsmanship(artificialia) and marvels from the world of nature(naturalia) by displaying them together, as precisely, marvelous things. Casa Italia therefore aims to become the universe that collects, preserves and exhibits the marvelous, just as it did five hundred years ago, with a contemporary language that aspires to enhance the nature, traditions, art, craftsmanship and savoir-faire that make our country famous throughout the world.

Inside Casa Italia, there is a succession of Italian-designed furniture, as well as works of art and quotations, such as a phrase by Sartre (every word has a consequence, every silence also), a neon fruit and vegetable tribute to our cuisine, a large tricolor tapestry created with five hundred kilos of yarn obtained from recycled plastic bottles from the Bonotto factory, Moroso’s “Impossible Wood” chairs and, in a room overlooking the garden, the words of a poem by Erri De Luca are piped in (I consider value all wounds. I consider value saving water, repairing a pair of shoes, keeping quiet in time, rushing to a cry, asking permission before sitting down, feeling gratitude without remembering of what... I consider value the use of the verb to love and the lipothesis that there is a creator. Many of these values I have not known).

Works of art by the most highly regarded contemporary Italian artists include the installations Tutti i passi che ho fatto nella mia vita hanno portato fino a qui by Alberto Garutti (dedicated to sportsmen and the paths they took to reach the Olympics) and Gli Eroi by Giuseppe Gallo (twelve sculptures in which tree trunks are transformed into chairs), a work by Loris Cecchini inspired by Sartre’s words “every word has consequences, every silence also,” Goldschmied & Chiari ’s colored clouds with content related to pollution, and then again works by Flavio Favelli, Elisa Sighicelli, Matteo Nasini, Alessandro Piangiamore, Luca Trevisani, Elena Mazzi and many others.

A concept that is declined, Coni points out, with a circular, innovative and sustainable project, created by Italy for Japan, to celebrate Italy’s sports victories, giving them to the world through a seventeen-day show, using the excellence of our country. Below are some images of Casa Italia (GMT Sport):

Casa Italia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Casa Italia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Casa Italia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Casa Italia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Italy House at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Italy House at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Italy House at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Italy House at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Italy House at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Italy House at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Italy House at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

For the Tokyo Olympics, Casa Italia is inspired by the Wunderkammer of the 1500s-'700s

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