March 9 - April 15, 2017

HŌSHANŌ: Art and Life in a Post-Fukushima World

The exhibition HŌSHANŌ: Art and Life in a Post-Fukushima World initiates a dialogue between Quebec and Japan regarding the Fukushima disaster, which Jean-Luc Nancy termed a "civilizational catastrophe." Its consequences disturb life itself, haunt the collective memory and change our way of understanding the world. Hōshanō, which means "radioactivity" in Japanese, questions the nature of this invisible enemy released during the fusion of the reactor core of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Beyond the ruins and devastation of the Tōhōku region made visible in the media, the radioactive threat is invisible and insidious; it contaminates all the elements that surround it and is inscribed on a vertiginous duration calculated in terms of half-lives. The era of the atom becomes that of self-destruction, that of a war without an enemy. Thinking after Fukushima becomes imperative for the future of our civilization. Today, on the sixth anniversary of the triple catastrophe and the official entry of the world into the Anthropocene era, this exhibition is introspective: what kind of world will we bequeath to future generations?

Michel Huneault presents eight photographs from his series Post Tohoku, looking at the physical and psychological landscapes affected by the earthquake and the tsunami. They date from his first and second work trips to the disaster zone in 2012 and 2015-2016. Huneault also screens his video 10 Minutes at Tohoku (2012).
Ai Ikeda presents nine artworks including Sievertian Human – Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment (2017), which lists the effects of radiation on the human body, accompanied by a magnifying glass containing chromosomes modified by radioactivity. She also presents works about the burden of memory after the radioactive incidents in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima.
Hideki Kawashima presents an installation titled 60 seconds - Extinction (2017). Turn off the light to see – this installation invites you to make this gesture. Contemplate in darkness for a moment to see nebulous lights glimmering. Extinction asks us to open our eyes to the world we live in.
Stephen Kawai suspends a mobile in the center of the exhibition space representing atoms and radioactive particles.