Activists move into the world of art

Activists took their anti-nuclear message to the art gallery yesterday, saying that an exhibition of photographs of the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster could help make people rethink issues pertaining to the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四).

More than 40 works by the Japanese photographer Hirokawa Ryuichi (廣河隆一) will be on display at the Tunhwa branch of the Eslite (誠品) Bookstore in Taipei until March 4.

Hirokawa, a recipient of several prizes, including one from the International Organization of Journalists, visited Ukraine more than 40 times after the Chernobyl accident to photograph abandoned villages and survivors suffering from the effects of radioactive fallout.

The exhibition of photographs called Mourning Nature -- the Truth of Chernobyl (核殤大地，車諾堡的真實), has been featured at more than 700 exhibitions in Japan.

Hirokawa decided to have an exhibition in Taiwan last October when he learned that Taiwan was going to halt the construction of the controversial plant.

The exhibition, organized by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, is a warm-up for the "224 Anti-nuclear Demonstration" (二二四反核大遊行) to be held on Saturday in Taipei. It is expected to attract thousands of demonstrators.

Among Hirokawa's works being exhibited in Taipei, a photo showing a heartbroken young mother kissing her dead child lying in a coffin was used by Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) at a press conference last October, when he announced the decision to scrap the plant.

"It's a taboo for people there to take photos of dead children. The mother, however, asked me to take a picture as a way of reminding people elsewhere of the horrible outcome of nuclear accidents," Hirokawa said at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.

For the past 15 years Hirokawa has been recording the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident. During this period he has lost several close friends, who had helped him when his was working in the Ukraine.

"Some of my friends there died. Even as the outside world was gradually forgetting the tragedy, people in the Ukraine who were contaminated by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl, were dying," Hirokawa said.

Seventeen paintings by Chernobyl victims are also on display at the exhibition, including a self-portrait of a teenage girl with an ugly scar on her neck left by thyroid gland operation.

Hirokawa said that radiation from Chernobyl had seriously polluted at least 10,000km2, about one-third of the area of Taiwan, forcing people to move out of their polluted homes. It has been estimated that a total of 160,000km2 was polluted by radioactive fallout in the aftermath of the accident.

Kao Cheng-yan (高成炎), one of main organizers of the demonstration to be held on Saturday, said that Hirokawa's works had been used by anti-nuclear activists in previous demonstrations to remind people of the horrors of nuclear accidents.

Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平), director of the Cabinet's Government Information Office, said he would rather attend the press conference as an ordinary person rather than as an official to show his support.

Hirokawa will visit Kungliao township, Taipei County, where the partially constructed nuclear plant is located, to record the coastal scene in nearby Yenliao (鹽寮). Taiwanese marine scientists have warned that the coastal environment has been gradually damaged by the construction of the plant.