Tohoku to the Future – Creating Heritage

Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, 2011

In unprecedented fashion, the catastrophic events in March 2011 have stirred an immense surge of creative energies, both from outside and from within Tohoku.
Commissioned by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to design a space showcasing the hidden treasures of Tohoku, this exhibition sheds light on how these trends stem from and are linked to the vast cultural wealth of Tohoku, some of it already well discovered, much still hidden in yet unknown depths.

Rough and unfinished, a dissolved spatial order exposes the strength manifest in indeterminate fragility. As you move between the exhibits, the treasures of Tohoku are slowly discovered in constantly changing degrees of depth and transparency, establishing links not only between the exhibited works but with their surroundings.

The exhibition is a template, a place where traces of traditional craftsmanship, which share the power of foretelling the future, are the signs of Japanese heritage in the making.