Curators Jason Waite and Kaori Homma discuss their work in relation to Arts Catalyst’s presentation of Real Lives Half Lives, two exhibitions and a season of events reflecting on disaster, displacement and poisoned lands featuring work by Don’t Follow the Wind and Hikaru Fujii.

Jason Waite is an independent curator and co-curator of Don’t Follow the Wind , a collective of artists and curators, - Chim↑Pom, Kenji Kubota, Eva and Franco Mattes, Jason Waite - initiated by Chim↑Pom. Working with former residents of the Fukushima exclusion zone in Japan and an international group of artists, they have created an exhibition inside the restricted radioactive zone surrounding the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, that will be inaccessible for an undefined period of time.

Kaori Homma is a curator and artist. In 2013 she invited artist and filmmaker Hikaru Fujii to take part in a residency in London as part of Art Action UK - a collective of artists, curators, gallerists and writers who are exploring various means to show solidarity and support for people who have been affected by disasters. The 2011 Japanese earthquake, tsunami and subsequent Fukushima nuclear fallout has been the catalyst for Art Action UK.
Homma will discuss her work with Art Action and give further context to Fujii’s film Project Fukushima! follows the preparations for a festival held in Fukushima city five months after the nuclear disaster. The festival, called simply “Fukushima!” was organised by a group of artists and musicians including Yoshihide Otomo. They aim to give visibility to Fukushima’s current state just as it was.

Real Lives Half Lives: Fukushima is a season exploring cultural and societal responses to disaster, displacement and poisoned lands. What can art do in an ongoing catastrophe? How do citizens respond to a situation that forces tens of thousands of people out of their homes, land, and communities, many of whom probably cannot return for decades?