Seeking Fukushima's future and hope, a colorful, slightly offbeat poster exhibition is open at the free space on the east side of Palaceside Building's first floor and in the atrium of the B1 central corridor. Through Saturday, June 1.
Called the "Hopeful Colors Balloon Exhibition," it is the main project of the "Fukushima Hope Blooms Project" jointly run by Shiseido and The Mainichi Newspapers. In the atrium, 24 long, colorful posters hang from the first-floor ceiling down to the B1 ceiling= photo upper left. Pass by and you may find yourself stopping to look.
The posters, themed "Future Me," were created with help from Shiseido publicity creators and hair-and-makeup artists, based on drawings and essays—305 submissions in all—from elementary school pupils in Fukushima. Dreams such as "I want to be a florist" and "I want to swim as a fish" become charming artwork.
On the first-floor east free spa
ce, eight posters show transformed grandmothers, fathers, and mothers under "Adults We Want to See Look Their Best"= photo upper right. With pros who pursue Japanese beauty, every figure looks like someone else. Maybe I could get a makeover too~.
Shiseido and The Mainichi Newspapers, both founded in 1872, launched this project as part of 140th-anniversary social contribution. Fukushima's children, hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi accident, are shown with balloons expressing the wish that their dreams and hopes swell like balloons and reach people across Japan.
After opening in Iwaki, Fukushima, last December, the show also ran in Toronto, Canada, in March this year.