“生きる”を輝かす－Happy Art Project－　＜開催に寄せて＞

 

 

25年前、生死をさまよう母の病室で、病院に色彩をはこびたいと考え始めました。

やがて、いのちの現場を巡るホスピタルアートに奔走することになり、

全国各地、そして海外の病院へも向かいました。

 

重度心身障がいの人々と出会ったのは10年前のことです。

それまで出会ったことがないほど重症の身体・精神・知的・重複障がいがあり、

医療的ケアも必要で、出生後まもなく入院し、終生そこで暮らす人もいました。

しかし病棟には、それぞれにあるがままの日常があり、

それを支える人々が温かくケアする日々が流れていました。

 

彼らと色のコミュニケーションを行うと、感動的なほど豊かに表情が変化し、

それに心打たれ、魅了されました。

ひとりひとりの違いが著しく、濃縮したように濃い彼らの個性に接すると、

私たちは社会に適応するために、自分の固有性を薄め、失ってきたのだろうか？

とさえ感じさせられました。

ストレートでナチュラルな反応に引き込まれ、ともに童心に帰る楽しさ。

ともにおなかの底から笑う爽快感。それは、この地球上に同時代に生きる、

まさにいとおしい同胞たちでした。

 

重症心身障がいは誰にでも罹りうるものです。

そして全国には4万3千人もの人々が、重度心身障がいをもちながら生きています。

 

本展を通して、その存在と個々の個性を感じて頂けたら嬉しく思います。

そして、彼らの“生きる”輝きが、みなさまの心を輝かせ、

彼らとともに、同時代に生きていることをご共感頂けたら、

これ以上の幸せはありません。

 

喜びに輝く人間の笑顔は、最強のバリアフリーだ！と信じています。

 

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ホスピタルアーティスト／Wonder Art Production主宰

​高橋雅子

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25 years ago, I was in the hospital room of my mother who was then hovering between life and death. At that time, I’ve come to think that I want to bring colors into that room. And before long, I started to visit a number of hospitals, both inside and outside Japan, to deliver “hospital art” to the places where people are fighting for their lives.

 

It was 10 years ago that I encountered with people with severe physical or mental disabilities. Until then, I had never met anyone who had such serious disabilities; physical, mental, retardation or multiple of those. Some of them also needed medical care, thus were hospitalized as soon as they were born, and there were even people who spend their whole life in there.

But in their hospital wards, each of them had their own daily life,

And there were people who support their lives, taking care of them warmly.

 

When I tried to communicate with them using colors, their faces changed so obviously that I was truly moved and fascinated.

Each one of them showed all different responses, and I could tell they had very much concentrated individuality. Dealing with such people, I even felt that we might have sacrificed our individuality in order to adapt to our society.

 

I get entranced by their straight and natural responses, and we go back to our childhood together.

It was such a refreshing feeling to have an easy laugh from the pit of our stomach with them.

Yes, they are our precious fellows who live on this earth in the same era.

 

Severe disability could happen to anybody.

And there are as many as 43,000 people in Japan who have such severe physical/mental disability.

 

It would be my greatest pleasure if you could feel, through this exhibit, such values and wonderful individuality that they have.

And it would be even more wonderful if their shining “lives” could further brighten up your heart,

reconfirming that they are our precious neighbors who live on this earth in the same era.

 

I believe that people’s faces irradiated with joy are the most powerful “barrier-free”!

 

Masako Takahashi

Hospital Artist/Director, Wonder Art Production