Opening of “Blooming Against the Bomb” by Mari Ito at Palo Alto

“Blooming Against the Bomb” is an installation by Japanese artist Mari Ito that expresses a firm “enough”: a visual cry, no to weapons, no to war. You can visit it from September 9 to October 24 at the Escoleta hall in Palo Alto.

The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, when the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki signaled the beginning of the nuclear age. Mari Ito explains in her own words the creative process that led her to create this work:

*”I was born in Japan in 1980. I did not experience the war, but I inherited its memories through my grandparents. Later, the earthquake and nuclear accident of 2011, the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza… all of them made me relive the same fear: nuclear risk, destruction, the repetition of mistakes.

Why do we keep falling into the same patterns, despite all the pain experienced? Throughout my career, I have explored the origin of human desire, representing not only pleasure but also sadness and anger with vivid colors.

A constant motif in my work has been the flower, often accompanied by faces, as a way to visualize invisible emotions and delve into the inner world of the human being.

In this exhibition, “Blooming Against the Bomb”, I build an installation centered on the symbolic figure of the mushroom cloud, reinterpreted through my artistic language. Through sculptural elements, I want to express opposing emotions such as destruction and regeneration, helplessness and hope, with the intention of connecting with the memory and imagination of each viewer.”*

Opening: September 10 at 7 pm. Inaugural event at the Escoleta hall with the presence of the artist, with music by Raúl Naro and the support of Cerveza El Águila.

From September 9 to October 24
Hours: Monday to Friday, 10 am to 8 pm | Free entry

This installation has been carried out with the support of the Palo Alto Foundation and the collaboration of Villa del Arte Galleries.

The Artist: Mari Ito, Tokyo, 1980

Mari Ito has lived and worked in Barcelona since 2006. Since then, she has developed an outstanding international career with solo and group exhibitions in Japan, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States. Recently, she has showcased her work at Gaudí’s Casa Vicens and at the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid, and has taken part in art fairs such as ARCO Madrid —with the Fundación Amigos del Museo Reina Sofía—, Art Paris, Art Basel, as well as those in Hong Kong, Singapore, Miami, and Tokyo.

Her work, which draws on Freud’s theory of the Id, reflects on desire and its expression within a culture, Japanese culture, that tends to repress emotions in public space. Thus, her pieces become a medium for channeling hidden feelings, revealing tensions between the inner world and social conventions.