"When you're a child, you can make a castle out of a couple of holes in a box. Wallpaper is all about this, a small artifice capable of transforming our domestic environment into a fantastic place" - R. Previdi

Maneki Neko is the title of Riccardo Previdi's project for CARTEdition. Traditional Japanese welcome cats, black on a white background, are aligned in a plastic, almost three-dimensional way to reshape space. The artist has used this symbol in several works to convey a sense of openness and permeability capable of accommodating the growing complexity of a world in continuous transformation. The Maneki Neko, statuettes that greet customers from the counters of Oriental shops transplanted into our cities, are an object that describes integration, as well as the representation of a culture, often transferred elsewhere. 

The images in Riccardo Previdi's work were produced using a sophisticated 3D printing method, then photographed and scanned to be transposed onto wallpaper. The sculptural feel of the cats is enhanced by the play of chiaroscuro, shadows and light that define the figures. 

The deep eyes of the cats seem to be access buttons to a fantasy world, a landscape of good giants that come into contact with our lives and take us to an extraordinary, positive dimension, because after all, the Maneki Neko are nothing but messengers of good fortune.