Tuesday, December 15. Date: 12/15/98 9:52 AM Received: 12/15/98 9:12 AM From: Philippe Vergne, philippe.vergne@walkerart.org To: Louis Mazza, louis.mazza@walkerart.org For some reason, good or bad, I felt it was important, being in Japan, to go to Hiroshima. First thing was to meet with Yuso Takesawa, Motoko Suhama, Hitoshi Dehara, and Toshiya Echizen at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. They were very, very nice. It is a complex museum whose mission, among others, is to reflect in the program the history of the place. The least one can say is that it is heavy duty. I spent the afternoon with them, visiting the museum. Then I walked into the city, which looks pretty much like any other average city in Japan (as far as I can say). I was almost disappointed. I was curious to know how a community could deal with this history. But I think that nothing demonstrative might be the best way, or at least an elegant one, if elegance makes any sense in this situation. Dinner. Bed.