THE PROJECT

In the old days, a man was taught to forget himself. Today it is quite different: he is taught not to forget himself and he accordingly spends his days and nights in endless self-regard. Who can possibly know peace in such an eternally burning hell? The apparent realities of this awful world, even the beast lines of being, are all symptoms of that sickness for which the only cure lies in learning to forget the self.

SOSEKI NATSUME, I AM A CAT

This anthology I am a cat of Soseki in the Japanese literature reveals the importance and the necessity to sometimes have cat’s point of view on our crazy world. Cats have been significant in Japanese culture from Hello Kitty to the maneki-neko, from A Cat, A Man, and Two Women written by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki to The cat returns from Ghibli Studio, from Chiro, Nobuyoshi Araki’s cat to Sasuke, Masahisa Fukase’s cat, cats are omnipresent. When visiting Japan, no one could ignore cats everywhere in the streets but also their representations in bars or restaurants next to the tanuki.
This project was aiming to offer Japanese photographers a challenge within the framework of an open call: to propose a series of very personal photographs on the theme of cat but with their own language, their own style, their own techniques.
A jury  met in May 2018 to select all the series that was published in a book – Neko Project Book (released in 2019) by the publisher iKi. In addition, this Neko project lead to various proposals: different types of exhibitions, conferences and workshops, throughout Europe to express the important place of Japanese photography in worldwide photography expression.

I wish this Neko project to be professional but also a time of friendship and love between our both culture, western and eastern. 

Sophie Cavaliero