Fuorisalone 2015, the orizuru of Hiroshima and recycling

70 years after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, the installation "Sen Mille Thousand” by Japanese photographer Yuki Seli as part of the Fuorisalone at the Fabbrica del Vapore is sends out an even more meaningful message of peace and commemoration of the past.



Orizuru is Japanese for folded cranes, one of the most classic of origami. The close ties between orizuru and Hiroshima, the first city to be devastated by the atomic bomb dropped on 6 August 1945 began with the story of a little girl named Sadako, who survived the attack at the age of 2 but who was then diagnosed with leukemia as a pre-teen, succumbing to it when she was 12 years old. While she was in hospital she began to fold orizuru because according to tradition when you fold 1000 of these paper cranes, your wish will come true.



So began a tradition where innumerable people all over the world fold orizuro that are then conjoined to form a circle and sent to the Peace Park in Hiroshima as a wish for peace.
Every year the park collects about 10 tonnes of paper that is then recycled in the Nissey Sangyo facility in Japan, which specialises in collecting these rings of conjoined orizuru and recycling them as cellulose pulp. 





The installation "Sen Mille Thousand. From the origami cranes of Hiroshima: new ideas for social design” by Japanese photographer Yuki Seli, realised by Camino Co Ltd. was created starting from these circles of conjoined orizuru that were destined for paper pulp. The students from the University of Milan unstrung them and attached each one to threads - a thousand brightly coloured cranes flutter around the room in the Fabbrica del Vapore, as a film clip shows the process turning origami into new paper. 



Orizuru folded by unnamed people from every corner of the earth, who put all their strength and positive energy into creating these tiny birds, which are then patiently unstrung by students in Italy: a cycle and recycle of positive energies, all set in motion by the creative strength of photographer Yuki Seli. The result is pure poetry as you can see in Seli's photography.

(Christiane Bürklein)

Installation: "Sen Mille Thousand. From the origami cranes of Hiroshima: new ideas for social design”
Production: Camino Co. Ltd.
Installation and photography: Yuki Seli
Curator: Rossella Menegazzo, University of Milan
Year: 2015