One of the works by Isamu Noguchi – who had close ties to Hiroshima – is a 1952 plan for a cenotaph for the atomic bomb victims. Kenzo Tange, architect who designed Peace Center, requested him to produce a cenotaph for the Peace Memorial Park but he did not have the opportunity to realize it. This visionary work will be foremost among a series of artistic representations triggered by memory of sites and works visualizing stories associated with sites, which we will be presenting through the endeavors mainly of contemporary artists.
SITE: Places of Memories, Spaces with Potential is part of Art Arch Hiroshima 2013, the first art program to be organized jointly by the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum and the Hiroshima Museum of Art.

Referencing the Noguchi's work as a departure point, this exhibition attempts to explore the “site-associated” endeavors of artists from Noguchi to those working in the genre today. How do artists produce or visualize art that is inspired by the memory of a site (place), art that has a deep connection to the lives of people or the history of a specific place and stories that carry with them a place? And do these artistic practices offer us a way of facing the future? In this exhibition, we place a special emphasis on works and projects with a wide range of viewpoints that make use of a light, flexible, and, as it were, “unmonumental” approach. This includes, for example, three-dimensional works that make use of everyday objects and videos that deal with familiar landscapes that run counter to the one-sided resolve of a monument. It is our hope that this exhibition, which considers the relationship between memory and place, including memories of pain and sacrifice, and nostalgic feelings for one’s hometown, will provide visitors with an opportunity to contemplate peace in Hiroshima, a city which is indelibly linked to memories of wartime destruction and loss.


ART ARCH HIROSHIMA 2013

SITE: Places of Memories, Spaces with Potential, is held at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the partnership dubbed Art Arch Hiroshima 2013, the first collaborative project to be undertaken by Hiroshima’s three art museums: the Hiroshima Museum of Art, Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, and Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. Based on a common theme of striving for peace through art, the event sets out to transmit a message from the city via art by simultaneously presenting distinctive exhibitions that emphasize the special characteristics of each participating museum. At the heart of these three exhibitions is Isamu Noguchi.


[artists]
Francis Alÿs Tadashi Kawamata Yuki Kimura
Toru Kuwakubo Tonico Lemos Auad Gordon Matta-Clark
Isamu Noguchi Michael Rakowitz Yukihiro Taguchi
Yuken Teruya
Xijing Men (Chen Shaoxiong, Gimhongsok, Tsuyoshi Ozawa)