Aichi Prefecture is a place where the machinery industry thrives, and many of the people who keep the machines running are foreign workers, including “technical intern trainees.” Tokushige Michiroʼs current project focuses on “landscapes,” which can sometimes be indicators of the identity of an individual or a collective. Tokushige and his researchers conducted a study of the lives of people from Myanmar who live in Aichi Prefecture. Through their activities, the researchers sought to understand how, as neighbors living in the same land, they might share the landscapes that the foreign workers and their families had discovered while living in Japan. Through trial and error, they came closer to reaching that goal.

In the course of helping a group that raises funds for the membersʼ native Myanmar, or paying visits to Mittadika Pagoda (Nagoyaʼs Myanmar-style temple), or to fields within the Seto city limits where popular Myanmar foods like bananas and roselle are grown, or while attending a festival organized by Myanmar people, the researchers met a variety of people, including those who belong to a young generation that came to Japan as technical intern trainees, another generation that came to Japan in the 1980s under the influence of Myanmarʼs democratization movement, and Japanese people who aid them.

The exhibition venue features tanzaku, strips of paper, on which are written the wishes and discoveries of the Myanmar people living in Japan that the researchers met. Also on display are garments called longyi and other ethnic items, along with videos and photographs that introduce the groupʼs research activities and some of the exchanges that took place. The exhibit records how the researchers tried to pay attention to phenomena that people would normally not notice, having many discussions to find ways to bond with a community whose culture differs from their own.

Selected Works & Awards

Recent major exhibitions include his solo exhibition Kobe’s Naked Army Marches On, Atelier 1, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (2020; Japan); the group exhibition Para-Landscape Imagination to Face the Changing Reality, Mie Prefectural Art Museum (2019; Japan); Aichi Triennale Regional Development Project Windshield Time, Contemporary Art in Toyota; various facilities around Toyota railway station (2019; Aichi, Japan); Assembridge NAGOYA 2016 PANORAMA GARDEN – Discovering Signs in an Alternative Ecosystem, Pot Luck Building and Nagoya Port ‒ Tsukiji Exit area (2016, Aichi). He has also exhibited Diamonds Always Come in Small Packages at the Kunst Museum Luzern (2015; Switzerland).

Exhibition

• Installation view at Aichi Triennale 2022
• Slipping through Landscapes, 2022
• Photo: ToLoLo studio