Yayoi Kusama is one of Japan’s most important and famous artists, beloved across multiple generations and different audiences, capable of wonder and amazement. Infinito presente is a tribute to her original and unique art, focusing on Fireflies on the Water one of her most iconic Infinity Mirror Rooms from the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Fireflies on the Water is a room-sized installation where, as the title suggests, the lights seem almost natural, like fireflies on a quiet summer’s night. The pool of water creates an incredible sense of stillness and the mirrors reflect never-ending images of themselves, creating a sidereal ambience. Space appears infinite, without top or bottom, beginning or end. As in Yayoi Kusama’s early installations, including her Infinity Mirror Room (1965), Fireflies on the Water embodies an almost hallucinatory approach to reality. Although linked to the artist’s personal mythology and the process of therapeutic work, this work also references sources as diverse as the myth of Narcissus and Kusama’s native Japanese landscape.

Stefano Raimondi, contemporary art curator, is director of network The Blank Contemporary Art, Italy's leading network dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of contemporary art and the territory in which it is embedded.