The closing of The New Age of Humanism

Last weekend was the final weekend of an incredible show at Spazio Nobile Gallery in Belgium. They invited Yuka Isono, an Ikebana artist to bring her incredible talent and work with the artworks that were in the exhibition.

The word Ikebana means “living flower”, and in Japanese it could also be read as ‘the breath of the flower’. It is that élan that is expressed by Ikebana. Ikebana is movement in stillness. Traditionally we say that in Ikebana space represents 75% and flowers only 25%. Or as a Japanese master once explained, “In Ikebana, in order to express the beauty of flowers, we do not arrange the flowers but the space around them”. I think that is very

true. I might even go one step further: the role of Ikebana is to invite space, make space visible, make space come alive. In a certain sense, through Ikebana we ‘create’ space. This way of doing Ikebana does not just apply to our practice as artist or designer, it spills over into the whole of our daily life. It becomes an art of life, life as art.” Extract by Jozef Prelis Seihõ, in: TLmag 33, The New Age of Humanism, SS2020