The Tower of the Moon Project Executive Committee (Representative/Producer/Artist: Nagasaka Mago, Vice Representative/Co-Producer: Hashizume Shinya) announced a project to relocate the Tower of the Moon on Shodoshima to Osaka Expo Commemoration Park for a limited time in the spring of 2025. However, due to health reasons of producer Nagasaka Mago, we have decided to cancel the project. We sincerely apologize to all those who have shown an interest in the project for the inconvenience and concern caused.
■ Full comment from producer/artist Mago Nagasaka
We sincerely apologize to everyone who was looking forward to the relocation of the Moon Tower to Expo '70 Commemorative Park.
During a trip to Ghana at the end of the year, while working in a slum, he developed a high fever of over 40 degrees and at the same time experienced severe pain in his right shoulder, which caused him to suffer for several weeks. The cause was unknown in Ghana, and after returning to Japan, he was examined at a hospital and diagnosed with "long thoracic nerve palsy." He was unable to move his right arm upwards, and the disability remains to this day. His shoulder showed "winged scapula," a condition specific to nerve palsy, and it is said that it will take about a year for him to fully recover.
My arms are still paralyzed and I cannot lift them, so I cannot do my usual activities, and my production is difficult and has been greatly reduced. In this situation, I was thinking of raising funds through crowdfunding after returning to Ghana to relocate the "Tower of the Moon" on Shodoshima to the Expo Commemoration Park. I also had other solo exhibitions lined up, so I had planned to work on the production at a fast pace, but my body broke down before my willpower could.
In order to overcome my nerve paralysis, I have had to reconsider the work I had planned for this year and have come to the conclusion that it will be difficult to create art as a reward for my crowdfunding efforts.
I'm really sorry to everyone who was looking forward to my work. I'm currently reducing my workload and focusing on overcoming my nerve paralysis. Once my arm has fully recovered, I want to draw as much as I can again.
Just because my right arm is paralyzed does not make me depressed. My passion for the dream of eradicating slums has not cooled at all, but has only grown stronger. I will definitely make a full recovery, so please wait for me for a little longer.
March 2025
Artist: Mago Nagasaka
■ Overview of the canceled projects
Moon Tower 2025 in Expo'70 Commemorative Park (tentative name)
・Event period: Spring 2025 (planned)
- Location: Expo '70 Commemorative Park, EXPO'70 Pavilion, Pilotis (Senri Expo Park, Suita City, Osaka Prefecture)
Organizer: Moon Tower Project Executive Committee
*A joint exhibition of Mago Nagasaka's work will be held at the gallery.
■ About the "Tower of the Moon"
The prototype of the monument to pray for peace, "Moon Tower", is the ceramic work "Moon Tower" that was exhibited at the "Tower of the Sun Together" exhibition in 2015. Since Taro Okamoto, whom Nagasaka admires, left behind the ceramic work "Face of the Moon" in his hometown of Fukui, Nagasaka interpreted the reply to the message from "Tower of the Sun" as the "moon" which is the polar opposite, and created the "Moon Tower" in Echizen City.
In 2019, the group worked with the people of the Agbogbloshie slum in Ghana to create a citizen-created art monument called the Moon Tower, using discarded plastic bottles, and has been holding the Moon Festival every year since. In 2022, in technical collaboration with universities and private companies, the group will unveil the Moon Tower on Shodoshima Island, using 3D printer technology, plant-based biofilament, recycled plastic bottles, and solar panel power generation.
