The Mori Art Museum in Roppongi, Tokyo, will be holding the exhibition "Go-Betweens: Seeing the World Through Children" from May 31st to August 31st. A preview and press conference were held on the 30th, revealing the full scope of the exhibition.

"Go-Betweens" refers to immigrant children who perform various tasks as a bridge between their parents, who are not fluent in English, and this term is the keyword for this exhibition. Treating children as intermediaries traversing various boundaries—between different cultures, between ideals and reality, and between adulthood and childhood—the exhibition focuses on the environment surrounding children and the issues they face through the images of children depicted in the artworks. It also highlights the creativity and diverse sensibilities of children unconstrained by conventional wisdom and traditional frameworks.

The exhibition is divided into five sections, showcasing 110 works by 26 artists and groups from around the world. Section 1 focuses on children living in multicultural contexts, showcasing photographs of impoverished children and internment camps taken in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Jacob A. Riis and Toyo Miyatake. Kim In-sook presents family portraits of Korean residents in Japan and children attending Korean schools, while Jean Oh presents photographs of parents and children adopted between the U.S. and China. Section 2, "A World of Freedom and Solitude," focuses on the loneliness unique to children that adults often forget, and the freedom and creativity that can be gained from it. Nara Yoshitomo's "Missing in Action," shown for the first time in Japan, opens the exhibition, followed by Junya Konishi's photographs of children playing in the rooms of their familiar homes. Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler's "Eight," a video work with no beginning or end that loops endlessly, depicts a girl celebrating her eighth birthday alone, in a depiction that is neither dream nor reality. Section 3 explores children's painful experiences, including traumatic memories, war memories, and everyday struggles. Story Co.'s animated film depicts a conversation between a parent and child. Christian Boltanski's "Altar of the Schass High School," featuring portraits of children attending a Jewish school in Vienna, evokes the Nazi Holocaust and invites reflection on the tragedy of children at the mercy of the times. Section 4 explores the nature of children traversing the boundary between adulthood and childhood through adolescents. Kayo Ume's photographs of impressionable junior high school girls and Tomoko Kikuchi's video work "Lost," depict a Chinese girl teetering on the border between adulthood and childhood, between man and woman. The final section explores the possibilities of a diverse and rich world through the image of children moving freely between reality and the world of dreams and imagination. Won Seong-won's photographs capture a child's world where dreams and reality intersect, while Suheir Nafar and Jacqueline Reem Salloum's video work depicts a girl living in a radical Palestinian town who transforms into a pop star through her own free-spirited imagination. Takayuki Yamamoto's work, titled "What kind of hell are we going to? Tokyo?", features a series of three-dimensional works evoking "hell" created by children through their own free-spirited imagination. This exhibition will screen seven children's-themed films from around the world over four days. Workshops will also be held, including the "Children's Caption Project," where children who have seen the exhibition will provide commentary. The "Picture Book Library," featuring 250 picture books for both adults and children, is also available, with the museum geared toward attracting visitors during the summer holidays.
After its run in Roppongi, the exhibition will travel to the Nagoya City Art Museum from November 8th to December 23rd, the Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum from January 16th to March 15th, 2015, and the Kochi Museum of Art from April 5th to June 7th.
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[Event Information]
Go-Betweens: Seeing the World Through Children
Venue: Mori Art Museum
Address: 53F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Dates: May 31st to August 31st
Hours: 10:00am to 10:00pm (until 5:00pm on Tuesdays only)
Admission Fee: Adults 1,500 yen, Students 1,000 yen, Children aged 4 to junior high school students 500 yen