Rinko Kawauchi
Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
What is the Joy of the Future?
Rinko Kawauchi visited Fukushima Prefecture in 2019 to observe an Olympic Day Festa organised by the Japanese Olympic Committee, an event that has been held annually in different venues across the Tohoku region to connect Olympic athletes with disaster-affected communities in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The goal of the initiative was to contribute to the recovery process by inviting communities into playful physical activity, and to bring encouragement to local children, their families and the elderly who lived through the traumatic events. Since 2011, the Olympic Day Festa has been held at more than 122 venues in the five affected prefectures.
Known for her poetic depictions of everyday life, Kawauchi photographed the children in the Tohoku region as they came together and participated in various sports. The artist considers their future through an observation of the spirit inherent in their activity and ponders their destiny in the context of the natural elements. Her sensitive images inspire hope for recovery and rebirth, underscore the joy and healing that can be found in the practice of sport and the friendships it fosters, and serve as a reminder of the fragile and precious gifts of nature that sustains all human life.
Biography
(b. 1972, Japan) Rinko Kawauchi is a celebrated contemporary photographer, known for her poetic depictions of everyday life, soft palette and carefully edited photobooks. In 2001, she launched her career with the simultaneous publication of three critically acclaimed books: Utatane, Hanabi and Hanako. Since then, she has published more than 12 volumes of her work, including Illuminance (Aperture, 2011) and Ametsuchi (Aperture, 2013).
She won the 27th Kimura Ihei Photography Award (2002) and the International Centre of Photography Infinity Award in Art (2009). She has had solo exhibitions at Fondation Cartier, Paris; the Photographers’ Gallery, London; São Paulo Museum of Modern Art; and Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, among other venues. In 2012, she was one of four artists shortlisted for the 2012 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. Kawauchi lives and works in Chiba.