Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2011

After 3/11, South African designer and curator Liezel Strauss’s thoughts turned to what she could do for her adopted country. She started out with a simple question on Facebook—What does Japan mean to you? Soon hundreds of photos poured in from more than 20 countries. Now her charity venture to help people in Japan’s northeast has become an art happening, with an exhibit in May followed by another underway at Nirvana Midtown, and a coffee table book due out in a couple of weeks. Like other crowd-sourced efforts Quakebook and digital album Kizuna, all proceeds go to people in the devastated Tohoku region.

Nirvana Midtown, until Dec 18 (listing).