Misako Ichimura is an artist and activist who has lived in a blue tent village in a park in Tokyo since 2003, and runs a barter caf\u00e9 called \u201cEnoir\u201d with other residents of the tent village. In 2007, she founded Nora, a group of homeless women, and has been active in anti-gentrification, feminism, and anti-Olympic activities in Japan and abroad. She is the author of \u201cDear Kikuchi-san, Blue Tent Village and Chocolate\u201d (Kyototto Publishing, 2006).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Date<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
March 4th, 2021: Opens at 16:50 pm, performance starts at 17:00 p.m. in Japan Time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Online<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Review<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The phrase \u201csocial exclusion created by social inclusion\u201d is still stuck in my head.
Since graduating from the Graduate School of Tokyo University of the Arts, Misako Ichimura has been practicing various artistic initiatives such as forming a place where people gather together (barter-exchange-caf\u00e9 “ENO ARU” at the Blue Tent Village), a homeless encampment, holding \u201cPainting Sessions\u201d and the \u201cTea Party for Women\u201d forming the Nora group of homeless women and creating cloth menstrual pads and ZINE, all while living a homeless life in Tokyo since 2003.
She said that when living a homeless life in parks or on the streets, there are times when she encounters different forms of social exclusion. For example, social exclusion lurks even in something as simple as park benches, which we normally overlook. At first glance, they look like common, ordinary benches. However, needless armrests are prevalent, designed to prevent people from sleeping on them. She calls such benches \u201cexclusion benches,\u201d and she deliberately repeated a performance of sleeping on such benches. Such quiet yet firm expressions of resistance truly bring out the social darkness hidden in our daily lives.
The same is also true of her performance at Art Gallery 246. Cardboard shelters of homeless people were set on fire in front of a mural painted through an art project by the Town Development Council and a design school. She performed an expressive activity of sleeping at the site where the burn marks still remained immediately after the incident so that the incident would not be forgotten. She said that box-shaped, simple temporary houses made of cardboard are commonly called \u201crockets\u201d among homeless people. She spent night after night in this \u201crocket.\u201d Of course, sleeping at the scene of arson involves risks such as being attacked. In fact, she was attacked \u2013 although fortunately, it was not a serious attack. In order to improve the situation, she used the wall blackened with soot as space and the night sky and decorated the walls and floor by scattering stars made of silver paper. This was a means of surviving, a form of self-defense created out of necessity by baffling the violent impulses of those who attack. At the same time, it was also sublimated into a cynical expression that criticized social exclusion by creating a romantic image of space drift in a rocket through twinkling stars.
Next, social exclusion that intensified due to a bid to host the Olympics and the Paralympics was introduced. The reality is that parks and public housing are being demolished for the redevelopment to be promoted as a celebration of peace, and many socially vulnerable people are being forced into a corner, but She said that it is not uncommon for these projects to be cleverly disguised using art, design, or welfare. For example, at Miyashita Park in Shibuya, after forced eviction was implemented for the development work of MIYASHITA PARK, a mural on the theme of \u201cdiversity\u201d was painted on the fences blocking the park. Many art students volunteered and created this mural under the slogan of \u201cLet\u2019s complete the world\u2019s largest art at Miyashita Park in Shibuya!\u201d but the \u201cdiversity\u201d painted there did not include homeless people. Therefore, in cooperation with people who were living in the park, she created life-size avatars with cardboard, attached an image of homeless people, which is not painted on the existing mural, and created a kind of collage work. She said that the image of the avatars trying to climb over the fence is a representation of the will to overcome the conceptual boundary that divides diverse people.
Another case where the socially vulnerable are excluded by other socially vulnerable persons was also introduced: a welfare project where concrete planters were deliberately placed under elevated railway tracks where the sun never shines, making the physically challenged to take care of the plants and claiming to create job opportunities for them. In this way, social exclusion has recently been expressed not only by overt violence such as attacks but has also been using terms such as \u201cdiversity,\u201d \u201cinclusion,\u201d and \u201cgreening,\u201d many of which seem like good projects at first glance.
Wasn\u2019t \u201csocial inclusion\u201d originally a concept invented to eliminate \u201csocial exclusion\u201d? Rather, the paradox of \u201csocial inclusion\u201d creating \u201csocial exclusion\u201d is occurring here. The term \u201csocial inclusion\u201d conveniently interpreted by the majority sometimes presents the risk of creating \u201csocial exclusion.\u201d I somehow get an impression of quietness on the surface from the attitude and expression of her, who continues to resist in order to live her life as she is with dignity even though she faces such a hopeless reality. It could be a manifestation of the result of her careful consideration as an artist who keenly observes society: perhaps this is how she can make the strong will hidden inside her resonate with people\u2019s hearts deeper and stronger.
It is said that the number of homeless people is rapidly increasing and the number of attacks by stressed people is also increasing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The social situation will become more and more severe in the future. She concluded with words of hope, saying that she wants to aim to improve this difficult situation and make the city itself \u201chome-full.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Hitoshi Kuriyama)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/8845999e43421a5bb47fb6734966ec9c-1.jpg\")
An Individual’s worldview depends on one’s position and living situation. Apparently, our society faces many exclusions caused by, for instance, poverty, labor environment, and disrespect for women. Yet, how seriously do we come to terms with these problems in reality? In this lecture, we would like to hear about the artist Ichimura, who literally lives in a “blue tent village” and sleeps in cardboard boxes, develops her keen insights towards these actual social issues, and will have an opportunity to look at society and reconsider art and design itself from her viewpoint. Lecturer Misako Ichimura, artist and activist Misako Ichimura is an artist and activist who has lived in a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review-en","category-seminar-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1738,"href":"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions\/1738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cdfr.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}