My name is Kana Maekawa.
I am artist.
前川加奈
美術作家
statements
The theme of my work is to record memories.
We trace history and memories, go to the scene, and reconstruct the feelings we see and feel there.
This history and memory are "negative" things such as wars, earthquakes and nuclear accidents.
The reason for this was the wartime story that my dementia grandparents were talking about over and over again. It made me want to know more about my grandparents' memories and tell them more.
For some time since around 2008, I have been working on the theme of memories of the World War II era.
The Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011, and Fukushima Prefecture, where my grandparents lived, was also severely damaged.
At that time, I could only volunteer and was overwhelmed by the incompetence and powerlessness of art.
But a few years later, when the quake began to become a memory of the past, I began recording and communicating the quake through my work, and it continues to this day.
Also, 10 years after the earthquake, I couldn't go where I wanted to go due to the great crisis of coronavirus infection.
At that time, I realized that making a work was also an act of carving my own memory.
In the future, as time goes by, various memories will fade.
I keep thinking about how to convey that memory.
And I want to continue making works in the future.
ステートメント
The Great East Japan earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011,
and people in Japan were confused.
Many people tried to do something for the reconstruction,
and many artists were tormented by the need for art.
So did I. What is the art for? I didn't know what to do.
I went to the disaster area for several years and did the reconstruction support activity.
Immediately after the earthquake, there was no need for art in the disaster area.
But, in 2014 ,three years after the earthquake,
I went to an off-limits area of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant ,
and saw the site where I was left without being able to touch anything after the disaster,
and I felt shocked and angry and at the same time found out what I wanted to do.
I want to tell the current situation and the memory of the disaster by my works.
This works was made from this feeling.
2019-2015 〝東の場所シリーズ〟 について
2011年3月11日。東日本大震災の発生によって、日本は混乱した。
復興に向けて何かをしようと動く人も多くいた。
一方でアートの必要性に苦悩したアーティストは少なくなかったはずた。
私もそうだった。アートは何のためにあるのだろうか。私は何をしたいのか、
何をすべきなのか、分からなくなった。
数年間は被災地に通い、復興支援活動をしていた。震災直後は被災地に美術は必要ないと感じた。
でも、その3年後2014年福島県第一原発の立ち入り禁止区域へ行き、
震災後から何も手をつけられずに放置された現場を目にした時、ショックと怒りを感じると同時に
私のすべきこと、したいことが少し見えた気がした。
私は私の作品を通して現在の状況と震災の記憶を伝えていきたい、と思った。
ここから、〝東の場所〟という作品は生まれた。