WabiSabiCulture: A Zen Art Center in the Marche Region

In the Italian town of San Ginesio, the WabiSabiCulture center, founded in 2010, stands as a unique European hub for Japanese Zen art and culture. Leonard Koren, author of the cult book 'Wabi-sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers', visited the center in an exclusive video interview. Koren, who also founded WET Magazine in 1976 and wrote 'New Fashion Japan' in 1984, discussed the essence of Wabi Sabi—the beauty of imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness. He described it as a lifestyle, spiritual path, philosophical model, and aesthetic ideal that transforms one's perception of objects and nature. At WabiSabiCulture, Koren engaged with creative director Ricky A. Swaczy, who recently opened Italy's first Japanese rock garden, known as Karensansui. Swaczy, along with co-founder Serenella Giorgetti, developed the garden after extensive research in Japan, aiming to create an intercultural bridge between Japan, Tibet, and Italy. The garden features granite from Montorfano (white and black representing yin and yang) and serpentine monoliths chosen for their esoteric properties. The project, which began twenty years ago, offers multiple layers of interpretation: a meditative Japanese rock landscape, references to the Kalachakra tantra, and a mandala of the mind. The center harmonizes Japanese elements with local Italian traditions in the Marche region.