Japanese architect Ban Shigeru is showing photos, essays and poems of displaced Ukrainians at an exhibition in Tokyo to let their voices be heard. The exhibition uses a paper partition system that Ban designed to protect privacy at shelters.
About 40 items are on display at the event under way at the Toyosu campus of Shibaura Institute of Technology, where Ban is a professor.
The partitions have been used by Ukrainians who fled to neighboring countries after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
One essay, by a 42-year-old music teacher, expresses sadness at having to leave their homeland.
The teacher writes: “I hear sounds, feel smells and recall happy memories in my dream. I left with only one travel bag, thinking the invasion would not last long, but still cannot return.”
Another refugee regrets losing family photos taken over many years, and one writes that Russian troops destroyed their newly built family home.
Ban says he hopes to make what contribution he can with his architecture, with a belief that there is no happiness for Japan without happiness in the world.
The exhibition, which will be open through October 20, also introduces Ban’s activities to support those hit by disasters as well as refugees in Japan and abroad.
A Shibaura official said they hope the exhibition will show students what is occurring far from Japan and what architects can do to help.