2020.6.1
[ Announcement of Postponement ] Art Museum • “Seeing Us: Living in Japan with Roots Overseas”
While we were in the midst of preparations for our Art Museum • “Seeing Us: Living in Japan with Roots Overseas”, scheduled to be held from August to September, 2020, it is with regret that we announce the postponement of this exhibition as part of our measures against the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
・It was necessary for us to prioritize the health and safety of our participants and staff members in light of policies for the prevention and control of COVID-19.
・Although the declaration of emergency has been lifted. It is difficult to hold the exhibition without sufficient preparations.
All of us at our project office are sincerely regretful for this decision, knowing that our preparations were underway thanks to the cooperation of many people. We wish to extend our deepest apologies most of all to our generous collaborators and to everyone looking forward to this exhibition.
Although this is a painful decision, we are setting our sights on preparations for opening this exhibition so that those waiting can enjoy it in the future.
We continue to request your kind support towards realizing our Art Museum • “Seeing Us: Living in Japan with Roots Overseas”. Though we will announce further details as soon as they are decided, we have a message for everyone regarding this postponement from Shigeaki Iwai, artist and project director.
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So far, due to the effects of COVID-19, we have been asked to refrain from various activities and the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been postponed. The world is still far from the end of this pandemic, and we are placing our hopes on the speedy discovery of a vaccine.
With the economy, culture and education impoverished, we are all prioritizing our own self-protection. However, there are already over 2.8 million foreign residents living in Japan. It isn’t difficult to imagine that many of them are experiencing more difficult circumstances than we are. It is precisely in times like this, during this sudden period of hardship, that I think we should shed light on the existence of people with roots overseas. In our project, it is only through expression, and the culture on which that expression is based, that we can make visible their existence. I believe that the fact that our exhibition period has been postponed means that we should take a closer look at current circumstances. The culture embedded in their lives, their lives as seen through a cultural lens, and the situation they have been put in… it is important that we understand these circumstances right now. This is because “we”, together, must build a new world after coronavirus.
Shigeaki Iwai (Director, Immigration Museum Tokyo)
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We sincerely hope that the situation will end as soon as possible, and that everyone will have a peaceful days back.
About the open call for the exhibition, we are publishing the art works which were submitted by all applicants at the online gallery as scheduled in June.
We will continue to count on your kind support for Immigration Museum Tokyo.
Thank you.
June 1, 2020
“Otomachi Adachi” Project Office