2015: The Making of "A Body in Fukushima"

Fukushima - 4 Jahre danach: 11.03.2015
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus.
Vol 13, Issue 10, No. 2. March 2015

The Making of “A Body in Fukushima”: A Journey through an Ongoing Disaster
「福島の身体」の生成過程 進行中の災害を旅する

William Johnston with Eiko Otake

"A Body in Fukushima" is an ongoing project that consists of still photographs shot by William Johnston of Eiko Otake performing in the area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor and of video interpretations of those still photographs
made by Eiko. Representative images and videos are embedded in the text below.


A Body in Fukushima Winter 2014, excerpt. Full video here
(http://www.eikoandkoma.org/fukushimawintervideo).

One day in November of 2013 I answered the phone to hear the voice of Eiko Otake saying excitedly, "Bill! What do you think of going to Fukushima to shoot photos of me performing in the stations along the Jōban Line?" For several years Eiko, better known as half of the performance duo Eiko and Koma, and I had collaborated in the classroom and by then knew each other well. We had co‑taught two different courses, Japan and the Atomic Bomb and Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in which we integrated movement exercises with historical and environmental studies. We both have longstanding interests in those and related topics, and had spoken at length about the triple disaster of 3.11 in Japan. Soon after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, we had talked about our concern for the people of Tōhoku and exchanged feelings of dread at the unfolding nuclear disaster in Fukushima. And I knew that she had visited Fukushima with a friend only five months after 3.11. But this new proposal took me by surprise.

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