shashasha

The second issue of the Japan-based “Decades” magazine explores the way our perception (or illusion) of time has been affected by the rapid changes to social norms and ways of life as part of the restrictions introduced during the Corona pandemic years.

Weaving together works by ten photographers and ten writers, “Decades Volume 2” takes a look at manifestations of the future that are already visible today, examines the sudden disappearance of tension regarding physical distances to other people, and asks how we may remember these months and years as memories in the future. The “Now” of the Corona pandemic is linked thematically and causally to events like the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011, the ongoing war in the Ukraine, and other crises.

The participating photographers and writers include names such as Yurie Nagashima, RongRong&inri, Naoya Hatakeyama, Chen Zhe, Ai Iwane, Haneul Lee, Narin Saobora, Sharon Choi, Jessica Lim, Mariko Asabuki, Hideo Furukawa, Tomoka Shibasaki, Shin Fukunaga, Otomo Yoshihide, Jiang Feiran and Kanno Jun.

“I was so surprised last year and this year. I forgot what kind of world we used to live in. It was like I was dreaming. I guess the sound of gunfire woke me up. The virus guys are going out there and being aggressive and industrious and evolving into a ‘mew strain,’ and we’re not evolving at all. We can’t come up with anything new. We’re regressed to the ‘world before,’ or instead, the ‘world before the before,’ as if we went around in circles …”
― from Shin Fukunaga’s text “Last Year’s Afterglow”

All texts in Japanese & English translation.