Exhibition/event has ended.

Take it Home, for (__) Shall Not Repeat the Error.

Buzzchika
Finished

Artists

Sixte Kakinda, Kei Ito, Layla Yamamoto, Souya Handa
This exhibition is an updated version of the exhibition held in Hiroshima to coincide with the 47th G7 Hiroshima Summit and will be held in Tokyo.

The exhibition is organized by Souya Handa Projects, which is headed by Souya Handa, an artist and independent curator from Hiroshima. The exhibition will be held at "Sinotica" in cooperation with Shinobazu Brewery, under the auspices of the Geiku-kai (Artistic Education Town Association), which is active in connecting artists and the town, mainly through the stores in the Ueno area. In addition, incense is used in some of the works with the cooperation of Shoeido, a long-established incense shop. In addition, "Jochu," a new sake distilled from Japanese sake, will be served at the opening reception in cooperation with Hiroshima-based Naorai Co.

Originally planned to coincide with the G7 Hiroshima Summit, the exhibition focused on the question of why people from around the world visit Hiroshima, and the starting point of the exhibition was the proposition of why humanity, living today, needs to go and learn about the past that happened in Hiroshima. This exhibition in Tokyo will further confront the proposition of why the story of Hiroshima needs to be told and spread the word about it.

The curator of this exhibition, Sachiya Handa, answers the question, "Why do people come to Hiroshima from all over the world?" He says, "To see, hear, and learn about Hiroshima, to take what they have seen and heard back home, and to use what they have learned to create a peaceful future together." The answer to the next question is "to avoid a future that could come if Hiroshima is forgotten," indicating resistance to the atmosphere of an age in which the retention and use of nuclear weapons could be justified in the name of realism.

At the same time, however, as it becomes increasingly difficult to hear the voices of Hibakusha directly, it is necessary to seek new ways of thinking about Hiroshima. In this exhibition, we will connect before and after "Hiroshima" - the Congo, where the uranium used for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was mined, and the A-bomb damage caused by the U.S. nuclear weapons testing after World War II - to show not Hiroshima as a singular point in history, but a continuous history connected to and from Hiroshima This is a continuous history that connects the two cities. This is also an attempt to explore ways to tell the story of Hiroshima.

Sixte Kakinda is the first African artist from the Democratic Republic of Congo to receive a master's degree from the Tokyo University of the Arts and a doctorate from the same university this year. This exhibition will focus on the relationship between Kakinda's home country of Congo and Hiroshima. There is a uranium mine in Congo called the Sinkolobwe mine, and the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima used materials produced in the then-Belgian Congo. With this project, Kakinda shows the invisible connection between Congo and Hiroshima and bridges the history of these two severed lands through the artist's body.

Souya Handa is an artist who grew up in Hiroshima until the age of 18 and now lives and works in Tokyo. Like many Hiroshima natives, Handa considers it important to pass on the history of "Hiroshima" to the next generation and focuses on the time that has passed since the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the significance of visiting Hiroshima. In particular, in one of his new works, which will be presented for the first time in this exhibition, Handa challenges the use of "smell" as a material for his work. The smell generated by Handa's incense burning at the exhibition site will be "carried home" on the bodies and clothes of visitors. This smell is a metaphor for the residual radiation that was once brought to Hiroshima immediately after the atomic bombing, and at the same time, a prayer that visitors will "take home" what they have seen here in Hiroshima and think about future peace in their lands when they smell the fragrance.

Toshi Ito is a Japanese-born artist based in the East Coast area of the United States, working on the theme of "visualizing the invisible" such as radiation, memory, and life and death. As a third-generation A-bomb survivor whose grandfather was exposed to the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and a first-generation immigrant to the U.S., Ito focuses on the down winders, victims of exposure to fallout from nuclear testing in the U.S., including workers who participated in the tests without knowing the invisible horrors of radiation. Ito's work brings to light the existence of "American hibakusha" hiding in the shadows of history.

Reira Yamamoto, a Japanese artist whose mother was born in Hiroshima and received higher education in the U.S., focuses her work on the existence of social power. Yamamoto's "After the Quake" series examines postwar Japan-U.S. relations from the perspective of nuclear power, depicting a series of events that can be said to have begun with the atomic bombings, were sustained by the importation of nuclear power technology, and led to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. The phrase "Postwar is Over" in Yamamoto's work is an attempt to reexamine the postwar system of Japan-U.S. relations, but at the same time, in Hiroshima, it is also meant to echo the sentiment of Hiroshima that "the postwar period in Hiroshima will not end until all atomic bombs are removed from the world. At the same time, the exhibition also has a significance in response to Hiroshima's desire that "the postwar era of Hiroshima will not end until all atomic bombs are removed from the world.

The title of the exhibition, "Take it home, for (__) Shall Not Repeat the Error is derived from the original Japanese “Let all the souls here rest in peace; for we shall not repeat the evil." The Hiroshima Peace Memorial is a symbol of the world's love for the people of Hiroshima and Japan, as well as for humanity as a whole. People from all over the world will visit Hiroshima, learn about its history, and take it back to their lands. It is the prayer of Hiroshima that each of "we" will build a peaceful future in which mistakes will never be repeated, not the mistakes of "someone else," but the mistakes of "we" as a whole humanity. This exhibition is also a challenge to ensure that such prayers are not confined to Hiroshima.

Schedule

Aug 5 (Sat) 2023-Aug 20 (Sun) 2023 

Opening Hours Information

Hours
15:00-19:00
Open 13:00-19:00 on Saturdays and Sundays.
Opens at 18:00 on August 5.
Closed
Closed on August 7, 8, 14 and 16-18.
FeeFree
Websitehttps://www.souyahandaprojects.com/exhibitions/take-it-home-for-shall-not-repeat-the-error-in-tokyo
VenueBuzzchika
LocationB1F, 2-10-7 Ueno, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0005
Access3 minute walk from exit A3 at Ueno-hirokoji Station on the Ginza or Toei Oedo line, 3 minute walk from exit 2 at Yushima Station on the Chiyoda line, 5 minute walk from the North exit of Okachimachi Station on the JR Keihin Tohoku and Yamanote lines.
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