Don't Follow the Wind

Don’t Follow the Wind – an inaccessible exhibition situated inside the Fukushima evacuated zone – opened on the fourth anniversary of the fallout in 2015. Here, the collective presents A Walk in Fukushima, an immersive 360-degree video filmed in the uninhabitable radioactive area where the exhibition was originally held. Visitors can virtually step foot into the evacuated zones, bringing the faraway tragedy directly in view. Made by three generations of a Fukushima family in collaboration with artist Bontaro Dokuyama, the handcrafted headsets involve traditional Japanese symbols and materials. In the video and on the headsets themselves, residents express their desires for a different future in this unstable present.

The curatorial collective Don’t Follow the Wind – Chim-Pom, Kenji Kubota, Eva and Franco Mattes, Jason Waite – formed in 2015. Their long-term project inside the Fukushima exclusion zone has been presented at Watari Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo), the 20th Sydney Biennale (Australia), the 6th Yokohama Triennale (Japan), and Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (Spain).