Japanese-born performance artist Eiko Otake has launched the public phase of her two-year Artist-in-Residence project at the Pennsylvania Academy for the Fine Arts. Made possible by a Knight Foundation Philadelphia Arts Challenge award, inaugural activities include “A Body in a Station,” a series of solo three-hour durational performances at Amtrak’s 30^th Street Station on four Fridays in October, and “A Body in Fukushima,” a haunting exhibition at PAFA of William Johnston’s high-resolution photographs of a forlorn Eiko amid Fukushima landscapes devastated by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accidents. Eiko’s vulnerable body mediates between the architectural grandeur of the Amtrak station and the ruined infrastructure of Fukushima province’s rail lines, and between Philadelphia’s teeming humanity and Fukushima’s exiled inhabitants.

Follow the link for more images and information about Eiko’s projects in Philadelphia.