27/06 – 4/10/2026 |  Azuma.100 x 100 Kokoro at Fondazione Calderara

The exhibition, which opens to mark the centenary of the Japanese sculptor’s birth and twenty years after the monographic exhibition dedicated to him and curated by Luciano Caramel in 2006 also held at the venues on Lake Orta, aims to explore Kengiro Azuma’s partnership with both Antonio Calderara and the Foundation itself, both on a personal level and in terms of artistic exploration. What emerges from the exhibition is a unique relationship between the two artists, marked by a profound poetic affinity, in which both are committed to exploring the dual nature of reality and the indissoluble link between positive and negative, emptiness and fullness, visible and invisible, interpreting spirituality according to their own personal sensibilities.

The works on display include previously unseen sculptures, paintings, and chalk bas-reliefs from Azuma’s archive, as well as a re-creation of the installation “Luce a Vacciago,” which the sculptor created for the courtyard of Casa Calderara twenty years ago. The exhibition commemorates the relationship between Azuma and the Foundation, in which the sculptor played an active role by joining the Board of Directors following Calderara’s passing. In addition to creating the plaque at the entrance to Casa Calderara, Azuma is represented in the artist’s collection with three works, on view in the spaces on the upper floor, thereby becoming an active part of the collecting project that accompanied Antonio Calderara’s practice.

The collection of works assembled by Antonio Calderara is on display at the Casa museo in Vacciago alongside a selection of works created by the artist himself. The collection should be regarded as a work of art in its own right, or rather, as an expression of a very specific artistic vision, due to the way it has evolved over time. This evolution has shaped the collection’s form in relation to the context in which the artist worked, characterized by its organic nature and completeness. The variety of artistic languages and the independence of his research place Calderara among those artists endowed with great autonomy, a characteristic he channeled into his work as well as into his collection of over three hundred works, displayed according to his own directives.

Kengiro Azuma (Yamagata, 1926 – Milan, 2016), a Japanese sculptor who became a naturalized Italian citizen. A student of Marino Marini in Milan starting in 1956, he fused Western avant-garde movements with Zen philosophy, focusing his work on the contrast between fullness and emptiness, the visible and the invisible. He exhibited at the Venice Biennale and in prestigious museums such as MoMA in New York, the Museo del Novecento in Milan, and the Vatican Museums. He received the prestigious Shijuhosho Award from the Emperor of Japan in 1995 and was posthumously inducted into the Famedio in Milan in 2017.

Fondazione Antonio e Carmela Calderara was established on January 10, 1979, in accordance with the painter’s wishes; he personally opened the doors of his home, which had been converted into a museum, to the public so that they might enjoy his collection. The Foundation’s purpose is to protect and preserve the entire body of works by Antonio Calderara and, at the same time, to maintain the unity and specific cultural purpose of the works that make up the Collection, housed in the 17th-century house in Vacciago on Lake Orta, which was first owned by the artist himself and then donated to the Foundation after his death in 1978.

Information
Azuma. 100 x 100 Kokoro
Curated by Anri Ambrogio Azuma
in collaboration with Fondazione Calderara
June 27 – October 4, 2026

Electa Catalog featuring contributions by Anri Ambrogio Azuma and Federica Minesso, Antonio D’Amico, Paola Bacuzzi and Eraldo Misserini

Email: archiviocalderara@gmail.com
Mobile: 340 0057784

Hours
June: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.
July and August: Thursday and Friday, 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.
September: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Through October 15: Saturday, Sunday, 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM