Re:Arch Hiroshima

A participatory installation inspired by the arched form of the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims. Passers-by slot wooden pieces together one by one, and the day's arch rises. Built in a day, taken down the same day. The same form never appears twice.

The word "peace" comes from pax, a bond made from the outside. The Japanese word heiwa means to become level and calm, a harmony that grows from within. This work is a way of feeling that difference with the hands.

In Hiroshima, peace has long been understood as something that keeps its eyes on the past. I wanted to give it a different angle: peace as something we build, here and now.

There are moments when strangers meet, when people from different countries find themselves building together. I want to keep making time like that, time where we all come into harmony.

The wooden pieces, called Toarubo, have slits cut into them. They are joined by the slits alone, with no nails and no glue. The wood is of three kinds: recycled timber, timber grown in Hiroshima, and wood from A-bombed trees, transferred from the City of Hiroshima. When the arch comes down, the pieces go on to the next place.

The arch is built within a single day and taken down the same day. The wooden pieces have been in the making since 2023.

There is no fixed studio. The place where the arch is built that day is the studio: the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Aioi-dori, a riverside.

"Arch" comes from the arched form of the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims. "Re:" means to build it once more. In front of the cenotaph, visitors rebuild the arch with their own hands. Each of those hands is the work.