Suzu City in central Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture plans to dismantle a facility that was featured at an international art festival. The structure was damaged by a powerful earthquake on New Year’s Day.
“Saihate no Cabaret,” which means a cabaret at the end of the world in Japanese, was featured as a work of modern art at the Oku-Noto Triennale in 2017. The festival began that year. Since then, the facility has been featured in the festival’s promotional campaigns. It has also been used as a rental space.
The facility was originally created by renovating a building. The structure had been used by passengers waiting to board commercial ships that docked at a port in the city.
Suzu City manages the facility and serves as the secretariat of the festival. Officials from the city are planning to have the facility dismantled. They say the facility’s walls and windows were damaged by the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Noto Peninsula in January.
There are 23 other works of art that are on permanent display in the city. The officials note that 11 of them suffered extensive damage. They say that they will decide whether to fix them or remove them.
The officials say that they want to make decisions about the works of art as soon as possible. But they note that their first priority is to restore the livelihoods of the city’s residents.