JOIN USA giant canvas, measuring 11 ft X 36 ft, titled Born Free Guernica, focusing on the March 11, 2011, Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, is currently on display at the Rangoli Metro Art Centre on Mahatma Gandhi Road.
The painting, created by 23 people, which includes seven artists and a few children from Japan, who witnessed the horrifying incident, teems with images, slogans and symbols relating to the disaster.
Rena Masuyama, an artist attached with Born Free Art, Japan, said it took them almost a week to paint the banner. The nuclear disaster followed by earthquake and tsunami, resulted in evacuation of 50,000 people from Fukushima. However, there are still more than 10 lakh people living there as per official data of Fukushima Prefecture Government, she added.
Yuzuki Shishido, 13, living in Date City of Fukushima, recalled how the incident changed everything and she was forced to move to Sapparo, northern Japan. She said: “My town was rich in nature and beautiful. However, on March 11, 2011, the earthquake and nuclear disaster happened all of a sudden and I lost many things. I wish the governments do not set up and operate such power plants.” Yukimi Hagiwara, another resident of Fukushima, who now lives in Kyoto (West Japan), maintains that the number of children diagnosed with thyroid cancer has been increasing in Japan after the incident.
Born Free Art School, Bangalore, Director John Devraj said the painting would be taken to and displayed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to commemorate the 69th anniversary of atomic bombing and also at Fukushima.
The exhibition has been organised by Born Free Art School, Bangalore, and Born Free Art organisation in Japan. The painting will be on display from 9 am to 6 pm on Sunday at Rangoli Metro Art Centre.