With “Usagi Kannon“ Leiko Ikemura created a larger than life character with rabbit- like ears and a human face in tears as a symbol of universal mourning. The Fukushima disaster in 2011 and a subsequent press release about birth defects in animals inspired the artist to create this sculpture that is reminiscent of temple sculptures and whose walk-in bell-shaped skirt becomes a protective temple. The Japanese-born artist Leiko Ikemura lives and works in Berlin and Cologne. Painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, photogra- phy and text are her media. Transgressing the borders between cultures, she combines characteristics of European and Japanese art. The central theme is the fusion of man and nature into hybrid beings that evoke feelings of strangeness and familiarity at the same time.