hankyoreh

“Statue of a Girl of Peace

An exhibition in Japan featuring a statue representing comfort women victims, which was previously suspended abruptly after just three days, appears set to resume as early as Oct. 6.　

On Sept. 30, an agreement was reached between Aichi Prefecture, which hosts Japan’s biggest international art festival in the Aichi Triennale, and executive committee members for the feature exhibition “After ‘Freedom of Expression?,’” which includes the statue of a young girl, to resume the exhibition as early as Oct. 6 and no later than Oct. 8. The triennial closes on Oct. 14, and the two sides plan to continue discussions on the specific exhibition resumption schedule and its content.

Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura and members of the “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” executive committee agreed that day to resume the exhibition on conditions including the preservation of consistency with the event prior to its halt, the administration of education programs to explain the artwork as needed, and the use of prior reservations to preserve security. On Sept. 13, executive committee members filed for an injunction with Nagoya District Court to have a three-meter-high partition taken down from the venue’s entrance and order the exhibition’s resumption. The reconciliation between the two sides came on Sept. 30 at Nagoya District Court.

In a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh that day, Yuka Okamoto, a member of the executive committee, called the agreement a “major victory.”

“It’s key that we agreed on preserving the exhibition’s consisting. That means they won’t be involving themselves in the exhibition content,” she explained.

“This outcome was made possible by overseas artists boycotting an exhibition of their own artwork to protest the exhibitions’ suspension, along with major activities by civil society,” she added.

Exhibitions of comfort women statues are considered a major taboo within Japan. The recent feature exhibition drew major attention even at home as being the first example of a comfort woman statue being shown intact at a Japanese public art museum. Identical to the “peace statue” positioned before the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, the statue was produced by the same artists, husband-and-wife sculptors Kim Eun-sung and Kim Seo-kyung. The couple previously showed a 2cm-high model statue at an August 2012 exhibition at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, but it was removed from the venue by the museum during the exhibition.

After the comfort woman statue was first shown in the “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” exhibition on Aug. 1, Japanese right-wingers launched an organized campaign including faxes, and e-mails, and protest phone calls (known as “dentotsu” in Japan). A number of the communications were reported to have gone beyond mere protests to include threats, including one person warning of “going to the venue with a gasoline canister.”

The local and central governments made little effort to discourage such activity from the right. Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura described the comfort woman statue exhibition as “trampling on the hearts of Japanese” – giving the impression of aligning himself with the right wingers as the head of a public organization. On Aug. 2, a day before the exhibition’s suspension, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga hinted at a possible refusal to pay a government grant for the triennial, arguing that there had been no detailed listing in the exhibition content. Indeed, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs made a final decision on Sept. 26 to deny payment of a 78 million yen (US$720,743) government subsidy.

Facing a concerted pressure campaign from the central government and right wing, Aichi Prefecture suspended the exhibition on Aug. 3, three days after its opening, citing the inability to guarantee security. Viewing of the artwork was prevented with the placement of a 3m-high partition in front of it. Artists from South Korea and other countries whose work was featured in the triennial subsequently declared a boycott of the event. The exhibition’s suspension also prompted an active debate on freedom of expression in Japan, and Aichi Prefecture established a review committee of outside figures to review the “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” exhibition process. On Sept. 25, the committee declared that the exhibition’s suspension was “not an unfair restriction of freedom of expression,” but recommended that it be “made a goal to resume it swiftly as soon as the proper conditions are in place.”

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

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