宇佐美雅浩

Masahiro Usami

The Manda-la project is a series of photographs of people from different regions and locations, surrounded by objects and people that represent their world, like a mandala in a Buddhist painting. The production process, which involves repeated visits to the shooting location, research, and dialogue with local people, reveals the problems, history, and social conditions of the region. No synthetic materials are used. In this exhibition, Usami will present a new work based on the motif of the redevelopment, scheduled to commence in 2024, of Meiji-jingū Gaien, a Western-style garden in the heart of Tokyo, as well as a separate work shot in Cyprus in 2017. The work on Meiji-jingu Gaien depicts the confrontation between developers who want to move forward with the project and citizens demanding that further discussions be held before proceeding. The Cyprus work, on the other hand, portrays the historical background of the Greek and Turkish residents who were divided into South and North by the 1974 coup d'état. These works challenge us to think about the nature of organizations and societies, which sometimes produce division and war, and of the world as a community.