“Don’t Follow the Wind” is a long-term international exhibition. It takes place inside the restricted Fukushima Exclusion Zone - the area that was evacuated in the wake of the 2011 disaster due to radiation contamination near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, separating residents from their homes, land, and community. New works developed by participating 12 artists have been installed in the zone at four sites that were lent by former residents, all of which are contaminated and were evacuated immediately after the disaster. As the zone remains inaccessible to the public, the exhibition will be ongoing but largely invisible, only to be viewed in the future, if and when the ban on entering the area is being lifted.

http://dontfollowthewind.info/

Don’t Follow The Wind: A Walk in Fukushima
20th Biennale of Sydney, Carriageworks
18 March – 5 June 2016
The curatorial collective of Don't Follow the Wind developed a 360 degree video, A Walk in Fukushima, to make visible some of the inaccessible, irradiated sites of the exhibition inside the Fukushima exclusion zone, however the artworks in the project remain unseen, obscured by bodies of the artists and curators. The video includes the account of a displaced resident whose home is heavily contaminated and his ambivalence about having worked for TEPCO the power company which own the nuclear plant that had a meltdown. The video was displayed inside headsets made by the mother, father and grandmother of artist Bontaro Dokuyama who all live in Fukushima near the exclusion zone in an area deemed 'safe' for inhabitation but the low level contamination has radically changed their everyday way of life. They constructed the headset with objects based on their present needs and desire to find a more ordinary life in the future. As part of the installation decontaminated furniture from an unopened cafe on one of the sites of Don't Follow the Wind in the zone, which was planning to hold its grand opening on 8 April 2011 but has been postponed indefinitely due to the disaster.

Don't Follow the Wind: Non-Visitor Center
Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
19 September – 3 November 2015
A traveling exhibition related the ongoing inaccessible exhibition Don't Follow the Wind, taking place inside the restricted Fukushima exclusion zone. As there is no clear timeline for public access to the sites in Fukushima, perhaps 5 years, 10 years, or decades - a period of time that could stretch beyond our lifetime, the Non-Visitor Center is a migrating outpost curated by Chim↑Pom, Kenji Kubota, Eva and Franco Mattes and Jason Waite. The Non-Visitor Center included an Information Counter designed by Tsubasa Kato staffed by former residents from Fukushima. The main section was the Interpretation Station which an inaccessible exhibition inside of Watari that could only be seen by climbing scaffolding and looking through a window into the gallery which contained new related works to the projects in Fukushima developed by the 12 participating artists. Filmmaker Sion Sono created an installation around a discussion between the participating artists, also included in the show live streaming camera feeds from Fukushima and archival material from the project.

Non-Visitor Centers List (as of 31 December 2021)

2021
16 September - 17 December: “Mutable Ecologies: Tracing Changing Environments”, curated by Kristen Sharp, Philip Samartzis, Andrew Tetzlaff, at RMIT University, Melbourne
20 February - 9 May: “Artists and the Disaster: Imagining in the 10th Year”, curated by Takehisa You, at Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito

2020
17 July - 8 November: “Disruptive Matter”, curated by Anouchka van Driel, K11 Art Foundation, K11 Art Space, Shenyang
30 October - 8 November: “Microwave International New Media Arts Festival”, curated by Kwong Kai-Ling, at Hong Kong City Hall
17 January - 16 February: “Disruptive Matter”, curated by Anouchka van Driel, K11 Art Foundation, HK HACC, Hong Kong

2019
19 April - 13 July: “Non-Visitor Center”, curated by Jason Waite, at Art in General, New York
23 March - 30 June: “Deadly Affairs”, curated by Antonia Alampi, at Kunstahal Extra City, Antwerpt

2018
6 September - 8 December: “Hot Spots: Radioactivity and the Landscape”, curated by Jannie Lamensdorf and Joan Liner, University of Buffalo Art Gallery
31 August - 29 September: “Climates of Change”, curated by Pippa Koszerek, MKH-Biennale, Halberstand, Germany
12 July - 4 November: “I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan”, curated by Suzanna Petot, Fondazione Benetton, Gallerie delle Prigioni, Treviso, Italy
24 February - 26 August: “Perpetual Uncertainty”, curated by Ele Carpenter, Malmo Konstmuseum
3 February - 18 March: “The Dictionary of Evil”, Gangwon International Biennale 2018, curated by Hong Kyoung-han, Yoo Lee, Cho Sook-hyun, Lee Soon-suk, at Gangneung Green City Experience Center, Gangneung, South Korea

2017
27 October - 12 November: “A Walk in Fukushima”, curated by Don’t Follow the Wind, CCCB - Center of Contemporary Culture Barcelona
4 August - 5 November: “Islands, Constellations & Galapagos”, Yokohama Triennale 2017, curated by Eriko Osaka, Akiko Miki, Tomoh Kashiwagi, at Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No. 1
21 September - 24 September: Abandon Normal Devices Festival, curated by Gaby Jenks, at Castleton, Peak District National Park, UK
26 May - 2 July: “If only radiation had color. The Era of Fukushima” curated by Jacob Lillemose, Kenji Kubota, Jason Waite, at X and Beyond, Copenhagen
19 May - 15 July: “Don’t Follow the Wind”, curated by Don’t Follow the Wind, Arts Catalyst, London
2 May - 14 May: Fast Forward Festival 4, Onassis Cultural Centre, curated by Katia Arfara at Acropol Hotel, Athens
16 April: Art in General: “A Walk in Fukushima”, curated by Laurel Ptak, at Art in General, New York
12-16 April: “Don’t Follow the Wind Camp”, curated by Ian Alden Russel, at David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence
2 October 2016 - 16 April 2017: “Perpetual Uncertainty”, curated by Ele Carpenter, at Bildmuseet, Umea

2016
24 September - 30 October: Beijing Media Art Biennale, curated by Fan Di’an, Wang Jianqi, Bernd Kracke, Su Xinpin, Song Xiewei at The China Millennium Monument, Beijing
4 May - 21 August: “Matter Fictions”, curated by Margarida Mendes, at Berardo Collection, Lisbon
18 March - 5 June: “The Future is Already Here – It's Just Not Evenly Distributed”, 20th Biennale of Sydney, curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, Carriageworks, Sydney

2015
18 December - 28 December: “The Medium of the Spirit”, Takamatsu Media Art Festival, curated by Naohiro Ukawa, Takamatsu
19 September - 3 November: “Don’t Follow the Wind: Non-Visitor Center” curated by Chim Pom, Kenji Kubota, Eva and Franco Mattes, Jason Waite, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.
28 February - 29 March: “The Radiants”, curated by Ei Arakawa, Bortolami X Green Tea Gallery, New York City.