Introduction

"Making as Living"

There is a landscape which was changed after the earthquake and a landscape which remains the same. There are times when humans seem to exist and create in opposition to nature, and there are times when we draw close to it. Is it right not to change? Is it right to change? At this moment, our creativity and our decisiveness are being brought into question.

I don't have the experience of seeing the destruction of war, but hav ing the unprecedented experience of this Great East Japan Earthquake has brought us to question the state of the country and its system, and it has given us the realization that there are other values and other ways of thinking beyond this. Caught within a vortex of an infinite unimaginable universe, “with nothing to lose, living becomes making” and it is precisely at this moment that our sense of ex istence as “I” becomes of upmost importance.

"WA WA PROJECT", initiated as a platform to support those engaged in creative regeneration ef forts, is also working towards the transformation of despair into a new energy in this way. Through this project we wish to grasp everything, both that which is in flux and that which is in stasis, in a creative process from which we must make a fresh start.

This exhibition consists of interviews with 15 regeneration leaders, introduces the support activities of 78 projects and initiatives, and involves 20 different events. What kind of role have artists, designers, architects, and those working in creative professions under taken amongst the plethora of support activities? Until now it has been difficult to locate the range of these activities, so this exhibition aims to provide an opportunity for mutual understanding of respective projects, and a chance to create collaborations and new relationships. Furthermore in order to realize these various support projects over a long-term period, financial support is also greatly needed and it is with this concern that we ask for your kind support in making donations and providing funding for the regeneration activities introduced in this exhibition with which you share an affinity.

This exhibition is being simultaneously presented at Artsonje Center in Seoul, Korea and Chung Shan Creative Hub in Taipei, Taiwan. Through such international engagements we aim to promote, in an earnest social message, the experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake not only as a problem for Japan but as an issue of a global scale. Therefore, one year on from the disaster we must verify the very conditions of the disaster and what support was required, imprinting this upon our hearts and minds.

Since 3.11 people have been met with circumstances which cannot be expressed through words or figures, and people's hearts and lives have undergone tremendous change. In reality, those affected by the disaster cannot return to their way of life before the earthquake. But while praying that regeneration can be reached even one day earlier, we hope to offer whatever we can towards these efforts.

Finally I would like to give my deepest thanks to all those who have offered their contributions and support towards the realization of this exhibition.

WA WA PROJECT, Director / Masato Nakamura