Kase-truck Project

Takashi Murakami
Artist

Born in Kumamoto. He started working as an artist in Tokyo in 1986, at which time he produced works using tatami mats and rice. He has participated in national and international exhibitions and art projects held at various venues including Towada Art Center, Art Tower Mito, 331 Arts Chiyoda, and Gwangju Design Biennale. Since 2010, he has planned and co-organized “art Inclusion” events and art projects in numerous schools and towns. Recently, he has given lectures and led other activities at cultural institutes as a form of “art as action,” based on the theme of art dissemination and cultural education policymaking.
Since the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, he has developed a “research center for art as action” in Ishinomaki through projects such as the 3.11 Memorial Project, Sakura 3.11 School Project and as a base for social tourism (dark tourism related to earthquake disasters).

Parco Kinoshita
Contemporary Artist

Born in Tokushima Prefecture in 1965. He has shown work in numerous exhibitions throughout Asia and Europe, while also participating in international exhibitions in the form of solo guerilla performances. After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, he strived to help with community building through art activities, and continues to support reconstruction efforts today. In 2017, he moved to Miyagi Prefecture following participation in the Reborn Art Festival, a contemporary art event held in Ishinomaki City. Kinoshita specializes in painting, but he has also started making woodcarvings, basing himself on the Oshika Peninsula. He also initiated art-related support activities in Banda Aceh, the area that was severely affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Yoshiaki Kaihatsu
Artist

Centered on works that invite audience participation, he has exhibited in Dia del Mar/By the Sea at PS1 MOMA in 2002, the 9th Venice Biennale: International Architecture Exhibition in 2004, and the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2006.
In 2016, he presented 8th Grade Syndrome at Ichihara Lakeside Museum. In 2019 in the exhibition Now, it’s time to play at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, he created an installation in which 30 clothes cabinets were assembled in the guise of a bouldering wall. He is also known as the organizer of Thank you Art Day, which takes place annually on March 9.

Atsushi Kadowaki
Contemporary Artist

Born in Sendai City in 1969. Graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, where he studied Arabic. On the occasion of participating in the art project Tourism and Art Exhibition in 2003, he started to use various media to develop participatory art projects under the theme of “doing something with someone.” After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, he set up the Oshiruko Café (sweet red-bean soup) and the welfare service facility Art Inclusion Factory at temporary housing complexes, as well as the Aceh-Japan Community Art Project, which connects Tohoku to Banda Aceh, the area most severely affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.