GAPi England
Speech by Taro Aizu in London
May 1, 2017
Hello, everyone,
I am Taro Aizu from Japan.
Bonjour, tout le monde, J
e suis Taro Aizu du Japon.
I am very honored to make a speech to you,
UK’s people because I am a retired teacher of
English in a Japanese high school and I had
learned British English for six years when I was
a high school student in Japan.
In my high school days, about 40 years ago,
I had a dream to speak English in front of
an audience of UK’s people in the future.
The dream has come true just now,
owing to you, UK’s people.
Thank you for attending this
Global Reactive Art Exhibition today.
Learning English is a little difficult for Japanese
people as Japanese language is different from
English language. For example, we Japanese use
three kinds of characters such as kanji, hiragana
and katakana. But English people only use
alphabet. (I envy you!)
We, Japanese people write Japanese characters
vertically but UK’s people write alphabets
horizontally. But even though they are a bit
different from each other, we can communicate
easily because we have more the same part as
a human language. As a matter of fact,
I speak English here and I can communicate my
feelings, my opinions and my thoughts to you
now. This is the first evidence that we can
communicate easily between Japanese people
and UK’s people. The second evidence is that I,
Japanese published a poetry book titled
“My Fukushima” in English and it moved lots of
English readers all over the world to draw a
picture about an English poem written by me.
We can go over the differences between English
and Japanese.
Last year I wrote a five lines poem about that
differences.
The title is “Our differences”.
Our differences
I’m different from you.
You’re different from me.
Let’s enjoy not only our similarities
but our differences
like a man and a woman.
Once again.
Our differences
I’m different from you.
You’re different from me.
Let’s enjoy not only our similarities
but our differences
like a man and a woman.
Now, let me introduce myself as a poet to you!
I was born in the Aizu region of Fukushima
prefecture, Japan.
My first name “Taro” means a very
popular first name in Japan.
My family name “Aizu” means my birth place,
the Aizu region in Fukushima prefecture.
As you know, Fukushima nuclear plant
exploded on March 12, 2011, six years ago,
after a huge earthquake and tsunami on
March 11. That summer I went to my hometown,
Fukushima, for the first time since the disaster.
There I happened to see my nephews hanging
dosimeters around their necks.
The scene gave me a great shock.
That sad experience inspired me to write
“My hometown, Fukushima” in Japanese in 2011.
Moreover, I translated it into English and French
the next year, in 2012.
When I announced it across Facebook,
Dutch artists were moved to read it and
grouped “GAPI” meaning
“Gogyoshi Art Project International” in Facebook.
They held the exhibitions of GAPI five times in
the Netherlands in 2013.
At that time, ”My hometown, Fukushima” was
translated into 20 languages by my Facebook
friends all over the world and a gogyoshi of
Takizakura was translated into 35 languages
by my facebbok friends. In 2013, I published,
”Waga Fukushima” in Japanese, “My Fukushima”
in English and “Mon Fukushima” in French with
German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese
translations by Amazon Kindle.
At last in 2014, I published a poetry book
“Waga Fukushima My Fukushima Mon Fukushima”
written in three languages, Japanese, English
and French.
European, Brazilian and Korean artists have
been holding Gogyoshi Art Project International
Exhibitions inspired by my poems in Holland,
Germany, Portugal, Spain, France, Greece,
Macedonia, Belgium, Brazil, and Korea from
2012 to 2017.
And today UK’s artists is holding the exhibition
here at this gallery in UK.
Thank you, every participants from all over the
world!
But now we Japanese people can’t solve the
problem of nuclear accident in Fukushima.
The nuclear fuel has melted down already
under the ground of Fukushima nuclear plants.
But we can’t get the nuclear debris yet from
there because the radioactive contamination is
very high there and workers can’t enter the
buildings for the risk of nuclear radiation.
Besides about 35,000 residents can’t go
back to their hometowns near the nuclear
plants. It is said that Japan needs about
140 billion pounds for the abolishment of
Fukushima nuclear plants and about 40 years
for the complete abolishment.
Japanese government has a plan to bury the
nuclear debris deeply under grounds.
But Japanese government can’t find any
places yet in Japan because most of Japanese r
esidents don’t want to live near those
dangerous places.
Now, both of Japan and UK have many
nuclear plants in their countries .
Let’s consider them for our beautiful countries.
I recommend you will use solar energy,
wind energy and wave energy instead of
nuclear energy in the future.
Let’s enjoy living a happy life on this blue planet,
our lovely Earth!
Finally I dedicate this gogyoshi to you!
The title is “Our Earth”.
Our Earth
We have some places
where ugliness rules,
but more places
where beauty rules
on this blue planet, our lovely Earth.
Once again.
Our Earth
We have some places
where ugliness rules,
but more places
where beauty rules
on this blue planet, our lovely Earth.
Global Reactive Art Exhibition
May 2017
Sponsored by Gogyoshi Art Project International, Peace and Art Society, ArtNations, International Culture & Arts Federation and International Association of Two and Three Dimensional Artists.
Organised by: Marilyn J Comparetto, Paulo Duarte Filipe and Laura H Elliott
Artists are invited to submit a work of art to the Global Reactive Art Exhibition that will be held at Mardleybury Gallery. The piece of art can be a painting, sculpture or installation but must interpret one of Taro Aizu's poems that illustrate his personal experiences following the earthquake in Fukushima, Japan, that resulted in the cracked nuclear reactor.
Stage 1 - deadline 1st October 2016 : To request a poem to interpret into a work of art please complete the form at this link: http://www.mardleyburygallery.co.uk/....
Stage 2: All artists who have requested a poem will be sent an email to remind them when the submission is open and will be directed to a page with the entry form:
Submission Dates:
•Submissions Open: 1st February 2017
•Submissions Close: 15th March 2017 at 5pm GMT
•Entry Fee: €50 euros
Deadline to receive artwork at Mardleybury Gallery: 25 April 2017
IMPORTANT - Artwork Guidelines for Original artwork to be submitted:
•Paintings must either be on stretched canvases or fully framed and ready to be hung (full requirements for hanging instructions will be provided)
?Minimum size of painting including the frame: 40cm x 40cm
?Maximum size of painting including the frame: 60cm x 50cm
•Sculptures and installations:
?Height Max 70cm & width Max 40cm
Sale of artwork: Artists will have the opportunity to sell art work with 20% commission to the gallery.
Customs Guidelines:
•UK Duty & Tax: http://m.dutycalculator.com/new-imp...
•International Shipping Guidelines for UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/interna...
Stage 3:The Exhibition:
•Start of exhibition Monday 1st May 2017
•End of exhibition Sunday 28th May 2017
•Catalogue: All artists will receive a certificate of participation and will have an entry into the exhibition catalogue.