In a reflection on the current intensification of geopolitical conflicts, the Daiwa Foundation invites visitors to view the video work SCARLET RIVER by Reijiro Wada. It was filmed in 2023 at the Motoyasu River, which flows through the centre of Hiroshima City. The landscape’s associated tragedies are captured through a double-glazed window filled with red wine, creating a scarlet scene.

An image of the water surface is inverted horizontally and vertically and reconstituted crosswise to create a vision of the moment the atomic bomb exploded. The river now flows calmly as if nothing had happened in the past. The ripples of the sightseeing boats passing by transform the reflections of the A-bomb Dome and the present-day city on the water surface into a hallucinatory loop.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the liberation of Auschwitz, and the dropping of the atomic bombs. SCARLET RIVER reminds us how historical tragedies and scarred landscapes past and present are interconnected across the world.

Background:

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the team members of Yutani Heavy Industries dispatched to Tenjin-machi* (500m from the hypocenter) were exposed to the atomic bomb and all died, except Wada’s grandfather, who was 33 years old at the time. Immediately after the bombing, he tried to rescue injured co-workers by boat on the Motoyasu River. This work reflects on that scene, described in the notes he left.

*Tenjin-machi was obliterated by the atomic bombing and is now part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

About The Artist:

Reijiro Wada was born in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1977 and is based in Berlin, Germany. Completed Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA) course at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Reijiro Wada is a sculptor working with metaphysical concepts and themes such as the universe, life, and time, taking a unique approach utilising physical phenomena and dynamics. Wada intervenes directly in the environment using nature. His sculptures, characterized by their multi-dimensional disposition, have an effect on the viewer’s perspective and the space they inhabit. Major exhibitions include: NACT View 04 Reijiro Wada:  FORBIDDEN FRUIT, The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2024 (solo); Before/After, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, 2023; Ambivalent Landscapes, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin, 2022; Market and Thieves in a Cloister, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, 2022 (solo); Apple Cycle / Cosmic Seed, Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, Aomori, 2021; Embraced Void, Daniel Marzona, Berlin, 2020 (solo); Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, Tbilisi, 2018; On the Art of Building a Tea House, Neues Museum Nürnberg, 2017; HaL Hofskulptur #1, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin, 2016 (solo); FORBIDDEN FRUIT, Centre International des Récollets, Paris, 2016 (solo); Vanitas – Nothing is Forever Anyway, Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, 2014; Aichi Triennale, Japan, 2013; Kunstkammer No. 17 Reijiro Wada, Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, 2012 (solo); How does the new enter the world?, and Nine International Sculptors in Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, 2012. 

This special video screening will take place in the ground floor library.

Admission free, no booking required