Happy Island - The Messianic Banquet of the Righteous

2015 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

2:57, 5:09, 2:08, 2:55 and 5:38 minutes

Akira Takayama


In Akira Takayama’s work Happy Island – The Messianic Banquet of the Righteous , five video screens perpendicular to the floor feature footage of cows grazing and resting in the rolling hills of a farmland. Renamed ‘The Farm of Hope’ by owner Masami Yoshizawa, the property is located 14 kilometers away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and is part of a now restricted area that became highly contaminated with radiation after an earthquake and tsunami caused leaks from the plant in 2011. Most of the livestock in the restricted areas have either starved to death after being abandoned by their owners or have suffered from the effects of radiation. The remaining neglected cows in Fuku (happy) Shima (island) are no longer cows, but rather radioactive waste. In an act of defiance towards authorities and generosity towards the affected animals, Yoshizawa moved back to his home inside a now desolate landscape to continue caring for his cattle despite the fact that he can no longer benefit from selling the cows. Although Yoshizawa’s cows are safe from slaughter and free from the burden of labor, they are also doomed by radiation. Caught in this bind, Takayama’s work captures these cows in a permanent limbo—left behind like the thousands of evacuees that continue to reside in temporary housing in northeast Japan after the nuclear disaster.


Aki ra Takayama is a Japanese theat e r director known for creating projects that challenge the c onventional framework of theater . In 2002 he founded Port B , a network of artists, intellectuals, performers and activists working collaboratively with the aim to reimagine the discipline of theatre and its relationship to society . Far from performing to a passive audience from the safety of the stage, the collective engages directly with the public and urban spaces through site-specific installations, performances, sightseeing tours and other experimental projects , which require the audience ’s participation . Whether through video interviews with residents, oral history audio recordings or Mp3 guided walking tours of specific areas , Takayama’s productions often use digital and social media as means to raise awareness and foster empathy towards various histories and marginalized groups: either the thousands displaced by a nuclear disaster in Fukushima , the Muslim communities discriminated against in Japan, or the rising number of refugees and homeless struggling in Tokyo. At the core of his practice is a desire to expand on the ‘ architecture of theater ’ and to establish it as a new platform in society —which he calls Theater 2.0— that is able to respond to pressing social issues .


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette  
» see more

What We Lose When Curating Follows the Money
© » HYPERALLERGIC

What We Lose When Curating Follows the Money Skip to content Gerhard Richter, "Tante Marianne" (1965), oil on canvas (all photos Olivia McEwan/ Hyperallergic ) LONDON — Something feels off from the introductory lines of the exhibition booklet for Tate Modern’s Capturing the Moment ...

Human Quarry
© » KADIST

Leslie Shows

Human Quarry is a large work on paper by Leslie Shows made of a combination of acrylic paint and collage...

ITALY: A New Collective Landscape at HKDI Gallery
© » ARTOMITY

ITALY: A New Collective Landscape at HKDI Gallery – ARTOMITY 藝源 100 Italian designers under 35 / ITALY: A New Collective Landscape Jan 19 – May 19, 2024 / Curated by Angela Rui / HKDI Gallery Hong Kong Design Institute 3 King Ling Road, Tseung Kwan O Northern Territories, Hong Kong +852 3928 2566 Wednesday – Monday, 10am – 8pm hkdi.eu.hk Fresh off its successful debut at Milan’s ADI Design Museum last year, the touring exhibition is on display at HKDI Gallery...

Cebo & Dollar
© » KADIST

José Castrellón

2016

Palo Enceba’o is a project by José Castrellón composed of three photographs, two drawings on metal, and a video work that creates a visual and cultural analogy between the events of January 9th, 1964 in Panama City and the game of palo encebado carried out in certain parts of Panama to celebrate the (US-backed) independence from Colombia...

Related artist(s) to: Akira Takayama » Aiko Miyanaga, » Erika Kobayashi*, » Keijiro Suga*, » Kenji Shibata, » Lake Towada, » Lieko Shiga, » Marcus Coates, » Masatsugu Ono, » Naoya Hatakeyama*, » Nobuhiro Shimura  
» see more

Large Heart No. 49 (Rasen Kaigan series)
© » KADIST

Lieko Shiga

2009

Lieko Shiga’s photographs appear like dreamscapes...

Candy Castle No. 28 (Rasen Kaigan series)
© » KADIST

Lieko Shiga

2009

Lieko Shiga’s photographs appear like dreamscapes...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
» see more

Japan Syndrome - Mito Version
© » KADIST

Tadasu Takamine

2012

The video work Japan Syndrome is a continuation of his lines of inquiry, taking post-Fukushima Japan as a case study...

In a Neighborly Portrait Series, Ashraful Arefin Turns His Gaze Toward Four-Legged Passersby
© » COLOSSAL

In Animals from the streets , photographer Ashraful Arefin takes a moment to greet the furry creatures that join the hustle and bustle of the city...

144540
© » KADIST

Yosuke Takeda

2014

Yosuke Takeda gives the viewer brightly colored views, each of which he has searched out and patiently waited for...

Trace series
© » KADIST

Shimpei Takeda

2012

While still living in New York, shortly after the nuclear power plant disaster, Shimpei Takeda heard an NPR interview with a survivor living in temporary housing in Fukushima...