The Story of Re-creating Walls

2017

movie 15:25

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In the town where the tsunami hit and killed so many people, work has started on building a big wall.

The wall is said to be a seawall, 6 to 20 meters high and 400 kilometers long.

It looked like a construction project to draw a boundary line between the sea and the land.

The concrete piled up higher and higher, thicker and thicker.

The scenery of the town was changing rapidly.

Before all the seawalls are built and the sea is completely out of sight.

I wanted to talk about the sea with people who live near the sea.

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壁を変えた話

2017

映像 15:25

大津波がやってきて、大勢が亡くなった町で、大きな壁を作る工事が始まった。

その壁は防潮堤というらしくて、高さは6mから20m、長さは全長400kmにもなるらしい。

なんだかそれは海と陸との間に境界線を引くための工事のようにもみえた。

コンクリートはどんどん高く、どんどん分厚く積み上げられていって、

町の風景がどんどん変わっていく。

全部の防潮堤が出来上がって、海が完全に見えなくなってしまう前に、

海のそばに住む人たちと海の話がしたいと思った。

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Revitalization projects following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake are ongoing in Miyagi prefecture, Japan. Working together with the people of the coastal areas of Miyagi prefecture, this project ask questions pertinent to Japan post 3/11; “What is restoration?” and “How can mankind co-exist with nature?”.

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After the Great East Japan Earthquake, which caused around 20,000 deaths, a national project was launched to build a 400 kilometer long wall that could protect the coast from the force of a tsunami. The government-led project began hastily without discussion. The breakwater reaches up to 6 to 20 meters in some places, and once the wall is completed, all views of the ocean will be lost. Some members of the community want to preserve the ocean view, while others want to be rid of it. The different opinions within the community are conflicted, and have led to disputes. This project began with research into this massive breakwater that is currently under construction. Kyun-Chome asked to interview residents in areas that will have exceptionally high walls, and in the process, aimed to digitally recreate their home city in the form that was ideal for them.

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A woman who lost her mother in the tsunami spoke of her determination to live alongside the ocean, and her desire to erased the wall. A man who lost his home spoke of how the restoration projects have made the city better than before the earthquake, and proposed a better breakwater design. A woman who only just survived the tsunami said she was afraid of the ocean but that she would still miss the view, and added windows in the concrete walls.

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By visualizing the restoration plans through a manual process alongside members of the community, the discussion went beyond, “The good and bad of the restoration process”, and both shared and individual connections with the sea and memories of the earthquake were brought to light. On the monitor screen, the seashore was converted into a sight that nobody had seen before.

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2011年に起きた東日本震災以降の日本が抱え続ける、「復興とは何か？」「いかにして人は自然と共存できるのか？」という問いを、復興が進む宮城県沿岸部の住人とともに考えていく映像作品。

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東日本大震災の後、津波を防ぐために総延長400kmにわたる巨大防潮堤をたてるという国家プロジェクトが始まった。その是非を議論する暇もなく、行政主導で建設の始まった防潮堤の高さは6-20mにおよび、一度防潮堤が完成してしまった街ではもう海を眺めることはできない。とりわけ高い壁が立つ地域の住人と対話し、その過程で、現在の街を自分の理想の姿にフォトショップで作り変えてもらう。

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復興作業を画面上に被災者個人の手を使った作業により視覚化することで「復興の是非」という論点を超えて、それぞれの海との関係性や震災の記憶が躍動的に交差し、モニターの中の海辺は誰も見たことがない風景へと変換されていく。