* This article has been edited and reconstructed based on the report submitted to the Kawamura Foundation for the Promotion of Culture and Arts.
Tour Project IGENE
[Application project]
Tour Project IGENE
[Applicant]
Bontaro Dokuyama
[Subsidy] 40万円
[Overview]
A prototype of the tour project IGENE was presented in the form of a solo exhibition in preparation for the implementation of the project, along with other related works. I planned this project in the Soso area of Hamadori, Fukushima Prefecture, where residents were forced to evacuate due to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. After ten years, the town's reconstruction is gradually progressing, and the evacuation order to the difficult-to-return zone has started to lift partially. While some residents have returned to their hometowns as reconstruction progresses, others cannot go home in the difficult-to-return zones due to the lack of progress in decontamination work.
In the summer of 2020, for the first time, I accompanied former residents on a temporary visit to their homes. I entered the difficult-to-return zone with the permission received in advance to assist them in maintaining their cleared homes. It was a shocking experience beyond my imagination. It made me realize how we had only been talking about Fukushima from outside the difficult-to-return zone for the past ten years and how we should receive and consider what those affected feel about the disaster they suffered and the recovery process.
[Held / Implemented / Announced]
●Solo Exhibition “Reversing Light”
May 22 (Sat) - June 20 (Sun), 2021
<Number of participants>Approx. 450 people
<Venue>LEESAYA (Shimomeguro, Tokyo)
[Outcome]
I entered the difficult-to-return zone today, for the first time.
For about nine years, I had only seen it from the outside.
I had merely imagined it from the outside.
The towns and people and minds have changed.
They will probably go on changing, but there are also things that do not change, that cannot change.
Time warping
Hearts too warping
Not that you know everything if you go inside
I want to talk with someone, but I don't know with whom, and where to start.
- Journal entry from a day in August 2020” Full statement on the tour project IGENE
We presented the prototype work, Tour Project “IGENE” Promotional Video (2021), in preparation for the tour project IGENE, including interviews with former residents of the Soso area of Hamadori, Fukushima Prefecture, who provided us with generous support.