'Freedom of Expression' exhibit of Japan art festival canceled after threats

A section of Aichi Prefecture art festival, titled 'After "Freedom of Expression?", shut down three days after its Aug. 3 opening to the public.

The exhibition featured works of art refused to display at public galleries,  dealing with the themes such as 'comfort women', the emperor, Article 9 of Japanese constitution or criticism of the government. 

A major factor in the decision to cancel it is that the statue symbolizing 'comfort women', a replica of the Statue of Peace in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, was severely criticized.

The organizers received a considerable number of threatening emails, phone calls and faxes, including one which hint darkly the arson attack, Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura said.

The Statue of Peace sculpted by South Korean couple, Kim Soe-gyeong and Kim Un-sung, who involved in the democratization movements in the 1980s as students of art at Chung-ang University in South Korea. Since then, they have created art works addressing political and social problems.




In 2015, when the replica was displayed at the exhibition at the private gallery in Tokyo, they explained about their works in Japan.

"I would like to create the statue for sharing and communicating with a lot of people. As a woman and a mother, I was working while assuming if my daughter or I had been comfort women," Kim Seo-gyeong said.

The girl of the statue has with her jaggedly bobbed hair. "I imagined that the girls were forced to have their hair cut. It describes the sorrows to be separataed from their families and leave their homeland."




The bare feet mean life full of hardships of Harumoni. The heels do not touch the ground because some of them were not able to return to their country and some lost their home.
 



 A tight fist represents the artist’s determination to challenge bring this matter to an end.

“Some people criticize this statue, but it is our art work. In South Korea Minjung art, political and social art movement, emerged in 1980. I do not think that the artists create any thing without having interest in political and social issue,” Kim Un-sung insisted.

"The Statue of Girl was placed in front of the Japanese Embassy, it is probably annoying for Japanese people. But they should know why it makes them feel unpleasant. We express ourselves through art for making peace."


Kim Seo-gyeong (left) and Kim Un-sung



Statue of 'Comfort Women' in 2015  (in Japanese)



Stance on "Comfort Women" undermines fight to end wartime sexual violence, March 4 2015, The Japan Times

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