A curation by Raffaella Nobili, Owner and curator at Paraventi Giapponesi - The perception of shadow varies depending on the gaze. In the West, the aesthetic of light dominates: that which is clear, defined, and tangible. In Japan, however, shadow becomes an aesthetic and poetic principle, as Tanizaki recalls in The Book of Shadows: not the absence of light, but a space in which vision slows and opens to interpretation. Fog and gloom blur the contours, forcing the gaze to a different, more intuitive view. It is here that perception is amplified, as the dominance of sight gives way to hearing and touch. The shadow has always fascinated us because it represents a double and an otherness: a projection of that which generates it, but also an autonomous presence that deforms and withdraws as if it had a life of its own. Jung interprets it as a part of the self that we conceal yet defines us; art celebrates it as a substance that redefines the boundary between visible and invisible. The selected works reflect the shadow as a perceptual and psychological space, a place of transition between light and silence, between what appears and what remains hidden.