Art and culture, how Italy plays the game of cultural diplomacy

Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Tintoretto, great music with opera, contemporary art, the great handicraft tradition of glass and mosaic, the Farnese Atlas, fashion as a bridge to strengthen the cultural dialogue with Japan, and audiovisuals as a tale of what we have been and will be. In short: a vast and varied programme, a schedule that will make Italy's cultural presence in Osaka substantial. A dense programme of events that will unfold throughout the event and that is still refining all the appointments.

But the well-known ones are already excellent. We are not just talking about the Farnese Atlas, an extraordinary sculpture from the Roman era that from the Mann in Naples arrives for the first time in Asia, on the occasion of Expo Osaka 2025, at the centre of the pavilion that Mario Cucinella designed on the model of the Ideal City of the Renaissance. The imposing representation of the titan Atlas supporting the weight of a globe on his shoulders is a beautiful message of resilience.

Among the most eagerly awaited works, for example, is Caravaggio's 'The Deposition of Christ', which will arrive in Japan thanks to the Holy See, and will be set up in the centre of the Spirituality space, 30 centimetres above the ground, to be admired up close, but there will also be incursions into contemporary art (including Jago's 'Circulatory Apparatus' and works by Oriana Persico and Francesca Leone) that explore the relationship between art, science and technology. And if you say art and science, you cannot fail to mention the four drawings from Leonardo Da Vinci's Atlantic Codex, on display in rotation for the duration of Expo. Owned by the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana since 1637, the sheets of the Codex arrive in Japan thanks to the collaboration with the City of Milan, which has implemented the 'Milan and Leonardo' project to enhance Leonardo Da Vinci's legacy at an international level. There is also the 'Portrait of Ito Mancio', painted in 1585 by Domenico Tintoretto: it depicts a Japanese prince at the head of a delegation of four young Japanese nobles sent to Europe by the Jesuit Father Visitor Alessandro Valignano. There was a special conference on this painting organised in Osaka and Bracco's invetigation that supported new diagnostic analyses, the results of which will be presented at that conference. It is a powerful metaphor, which will be read in Osaka in this way: the painting bears witness to a journey that anticipates all grand tours and marks the first meeting between very young Japanese people and the society of some large Italian cities. In fact, it will be compared in the exhibition with a video installation on maxi screens in which 30 very young people from many countries of the world express their idea of the future. With Arturo Ferrarin's aeroplane, on the other hand, we take a leap into the 20th century: this is the vehicle with which in 1920 he flew between Rome and Tokyo (18,000 kilometres in 109 hours).

It seems that according to surveys the Italian pavilion is the most eagerly awaited by the Japanese: and the ties between the two nations are another strong element. In the first days of the Expo here is the presentation by the architect Kengo Kuma of the DieXe chandelier produced with the historic Murano Salviati glassworks and exhibited during the first week dedicated to the city of Venice (it will remain for all six months of the Expo). The presentation of Kuma, with a long and fruitful presence in Italy, actually also inaugurates a small section of the exhibition in the showcases dedicated to design with an initial focus on collaborations between Japanese designers and major Made in Italy brands. Speaking of Venice, there will also be a concert by the La Fenice Theatre Choir with a programme of classical arias including two special guests, soprano Yasko Fujii and tenor Motoharu Takei.

Appointments with mosaic and leather, a tribute to Italian manual know-how. Here, the Spilimbergo Mosaic School becomes the protagonist with a workshop first promoted by the FVG region and a second one promoted by Lineapelle, which plays with mosaic by using leather as a material that is entirely part of the natural cycle of use to talk about Pompeii, Spilimbergo and traditional colours. Finally, just to give just a brief hint of the things that will be happening in Osaka, promoted by the Undersecretary for Culture Lucia Borgonzoni and organised by Cinecittà in collaboration with the ITS Foundation of Trieste and with the participation of Yoshikazu Yamagata, founder of the Coconogacco school in Tokyo, the 'Born to Create' event that will take place on 29 April in the Gardens of the Italian Pavilion brings together the talent of Italian and Japanese designers and that of young Italian artists from the world of cinema and music: video contributions signed by young people from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia with images from the Luce Archive from period catwalks will also embellish the fashion show.