Jeju, Okinawa, Taiwan collaborate on exhibition to reflect on East Asia’s dark history

A poster for an exhibition titled “Island Song,” a collaborative effort by organizers from Jeju, Okinawa, and Taiwan, which will be held from Dec. 18 to Jan. 31.

“Island Song” to be held from Dec. 18 to Jan. 31 at Jeju Apr. 3 Peace Park Gallery and Position Min

A poster for an exhibition titled “Island Song,” a collaborative effort by organizers from Jeju, Okinawa, and Taiwan, which will be held from Dec. 18 to Jan. 31.

Three East Asian islands with histories of war and massacres are coming together in an event focusing on peace.

The East Asia Peace Art Project organizing committee, a collaborative effort by the islands of Jeju, Okinawa, and Taiwan, is holding an exhibition titled “Island Song” from Dec. 18 to Jan. 31 at the Jeju April 3 Peace Park gallery and Position Min.

The first project of its kind to be organized by the committee, the art project was designed to reflect on East Asia’s dark history -- including imperialist invasions, colonization, and violence by the state -- and develop it into an agenda for peace. The title of the themed exhibition, which is taken from the song “Shima-uta (Island Song)” by the Japanese band The Boom, is in keeping with the solidarity among the three islands. The song was written by the group’s leader and vocalist Kazufumi Miyazawa after a trip to Okinawa where he met a survivor from the Himeyuri Student Nurse Corps incident. The organizing committee stated its aim to be turn the title of the song -- which shares the pain and suffering of an island through a message of peace -- into “wings of peace” in East Asia through unity with the islands of Jeju and Taiwan.

The exhibition’s artistic director is art critic Kim Joon-gi, with Kim Jeong-yeol, Wu Da-kuo, Kazumi Tomiyama, Hiroyuki Arai, and Yuka Okamoto taking part as curators. It is to include artwork by 17 artists from Jeju, 11 from the South Korean mainland, four from Okinawa, one from Japan’s main islands, seven from Taiwan, two from Hong Kong, and two from Vietnam.

“Statue of a Girl of Peace” by South Korean sculptors Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung

Scheduled alongside the exhibition is “Lack-of-Freedom-of-Expression@Jeju” and “Finger Gun@Jeju,” a kind of Jeju touring exhibition of the “2019 Yeosu-Suncheon Peace Art Festival: Finger Gun” event. For “Lack-of-Freedom-of-Expression,” the “After Lack-of-Freedom-of-Expression Exhibition” section from this year’s Aichi Triennale in Japan is to be invited to Jeju in a touring exhibition sharing Japan’s concerns and conflict over freedom of expression. Visitors can also see the comfort woman statue that became the subject of a censorship debate at the triennial. The “Finger Gun” exhibition will show artwork from the Yeosu-Suncheon Peace Art Festival held in Suncheon earlier this year.

“We’re a network of people seeking peace in Northeast Asia through artistic activity, and we plan to pursue artistic activity that opposes the threat of war by expressing and sharing an anti-war, pro-peace messages,” explained the organizing committee, which was launched in November of last year.

The committee went on to say its artistic activities would “move forward into the present and future rather than remaining confined to the past, and venture beyond galleries and other institutional spaces into the streets and public squares, the settings of daily life and struggle.” Its members plan to pursue activities including exhibitions, conferences, and regular publications.

By Huh Ho-joon, Jeju correspondent

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