The Essence of a Quiet Life - Sofia Lucas

Japan is a special place, with a unique culture and environment, so different from the western standard we are accustomed to. Those who travel there are invariably greeted by Tokyo, with its crowds and shining neons, its breakneck pace and futuristic architecture. Here, we are on a different planet, light-years away from anything we experience in Europe. But in the days she spent travelling through the interior of Japan, Sofia Lucas discovered, or rediscovered, a different way of life. A more pondered life, closer to others and nature, where silence and peace shape the slowly passing time.

The artist introduces us to small moments of daily life from this idiosyncratic country and culture. They show a unique way to live, a time that is slower and fuller, which makes its presence known in the abstract lines of the compositions. Here we find moments of a life that holds on to traditions from before and combines them with the current reality, a meeting between past and present full of mutual respect and admiration.

This portrait of a Japan so often overlooked in favour of the light and colour of the ultra-futuristic city invites us to reflect upon what we gave up in exchange for the current world’s velocity. About the calm and certainty of getting lost in a craft we inherited from previous generations, that we keep alive with our hands. About the respect we show to others and the environment and the concern for the whole rather than the singular.

Japan is a special place because of its contrasts. Past and future meet in the present, honouring one without rejecting the other. It is in this confluence that we find the essence of a quiet life and a return to a more complete way of existing.