Hikaru Fujii Shifts Focus from Humans to Objects in Fukushima Exhibition at Kadist

At Kadist in Paris, Hikaru Fujii presents 'Les Nucléaires et les choses' from May 18 to July 28, 2019. The exhibition revisits the March 11, 2011 triple disaster—earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi—by centering on objects rather than human narratives. Fujii, a philosopher by training, draws on object-oriented ontology and care ethics. The show features small photographs laid horizontally on tables, not hung, depicting objects in three sequences: items lit by flashlight in a museum without electricity; abandoned objects in Futaba's 'difficult-to-return' zone; and packaged, measured objects in what is revealed as a 'hospital for objects.' Videos show art world specialists—curators, theorists, philosophers—discussing what to do with traditional folk objects from the Futaba museum, closed due to high radiation. The installation is presented as a work in progress, emphasizing the moment of montage, akin to film editing. The photographic series resembles a filmstrip of broken, cared-for, packaged, and moved objects, evoking Chris Marker's 'La Jetée' and the cinema of Yasujirō Ozu. Fujii's work stitches together the film of objects and lives across events, questioning what will be remembered of the Fukushima catastrophe.