PRESS RELEASE

Takeshi Fujimura × Naha Kanie“Only Strangers Can Enter the Shore of Strangers(But Everyone Is a Stranger)”■Period■HoursJanuary 29th (Sunday), 2023 - March 5th (Sunday), 2023
Wednesdays through Saturdays, 13:00 - 19:00(closed on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and National Holidays)■VenueKANA KAWANISHI GALLERY
4-7-6 Shirakawa, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0021 JAPANtel +81 3 5843 9128 e-mail gallery@kanakawanishi.com© Takeshi Fujimura × Naha Kanie, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY■Please contact below for any image enquiries■
KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY PR: Jun Orikasa Exhibition: Kana Kawanishi

gallery@kanakawanishi.com +81 (0)3-5843-9128

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PRESS RELEASE

KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY is pleased to announce the opening of the duo exhibition by Takeshi Fujimura andNaha Kanie, “Only Strangers Can Enter the Shore of Strangers (But Everyone Is a Stranger),” on Sunday, January
29th, 2023.
At first glance, the word “stranger” may seem easy to use. Still, we notice that behind it lie the roots of division basedon language, nationality, religion, culture, ethnicity, ideology, appearance, income, education, gender, and manyother criteria. We also realize that the word creates the seeds of all severe social problems, such as bullying,discrimination, immigration, international conflicts, and others for which there seems to be no way out.
In this exhibition, the two artists attempt to unravel “what is a stranger” and “where do strangers come from?”
For example, the TV program “How Do You Like Wednesday? (Suiyō Dōdeshō)” started as a local program in
Hokkaido but has developed many enthusiastic fans throughout Japan. Those who have seen the program seem toconnect with a particular groove, leaving those who have never seen it with a sense of alienation. The program's maincontent is that four men from Hokkaido travel throughout Japan and worldwide, while most of the conversation
occurs in a car. This also makes the program an intriguing subject for examining the consciousness of “inside” and“outside.” As a distant homage to the program, the two artists and the gallerist observed “Wednesdays” and“Saturdays” at a fixed point for over a year and a half while preparing this exhibition as an experimental study.
The exhibition was initially scheduled to open on Saturday, January 29, 2022, but due to various circumstances, itwill now open on Sunday, January 29, 2023. The artist's decision to “place the highest priority on facing one’s family”
was supported by everyone involved, and coincidentally, it also became an opportunity for those involved to face theirpast selves from a year ago, reminding us of the effect of the time axis on the consciousness of “strangers.”
Even in an age when diversity is called for loudly, Japan ranks 120th out of 156 countries on the Gender Gap Index(GII), revealing social inclusion is not progressing well in contemporary Japan. We cordially welcome all to thisexhibition, which will provide an opportunity to reexamine the roots of “strangers” in the contemporary age.

■Please contact below for any image enquiries■
KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY PR: Jun Orikasa Exhibition: Kana Kawanishi

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PRESS RELEASEA Drawing for “Only Strangers Can Enter the Shore of Strangers (Everyone Is a Stranger)”Takeshi Fujimura (2020), with additional writing by Naha Kanie (2022)© Takeshi Fujimura × Naha Kanie, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERYYour Own Stranger Marches On (Picket Sign #1)
2023 | watercolor on paper, wood
© Takeshi Fujimura, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY

A Book About a Painted Past
2014 | book
© Takeshi Fujimura & Sayaka Uchino,courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY

A Drawing for a Picket Sign #1
2023 | watercolor on paper | 190 × 260 mm© Takeshi Fujimura, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY■Please contact below for any image enquiries■KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY PR: Jun Orikasa Exhibition: Kana Kawanishi

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PRESS RELEASE

Artist Statement
Dear Stranger—
There is no other place where you can face the horizon so closely, whether it's a movie screen or a computer monitor, but only on
the beach, so I'll meet you on Wednesday, and we'll be side by side (as in Tokyo Story), and we can talk or we can keep quiet. Or,
we can watch the Friday road show together. Then on Saturday, I am afraid that you will cease to be a stranger, but at least I, onlyI, can continue to be your stranger, how does this sound to you?
—From Your Stranger

I reach into my jacket pocket and find a pile of it crumpled up and stuffed in there. Is it far from here to there? Is this place being
here now making it far? Is it me, or is it someone else in front of me? I wonder if it is both of us. There's “the difficulty of leaving
home,” and then there's “the difficulty of entering home” and spending the night in the open air. We stumble along in ourjackets, with our pockets stuffed with the crumpled up.
—Takeshi Fujimura

Artist Profiles
Takeshi Fujimura was born in 1980. He received his B.A. in literature at Waseda University, and a diploma at Tokyo
College of Photography. His major solo exhibitions and projects include “When Singing Someone’s Theme Song” (2020,KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY, Tokyo), “Reading ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ in Woolf’s Way” (2015, BankART Studio NYK, Kanagawa, Japan)

and others. Solo exhibitions as the artist unit “Takeshi Fujimura & Sayaka Uchino” include “While Two Dispute, theThird Enjoys” (2014, Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa, Japan), “Lesson for Reconsideration (Forming a Project and Event)” (2013,mujikobo, Kanagawa, Japan), and “UNDER35 GALLERY Takeshi Fujimura & Sayaka Uchino” (2011, BankART Life 3 Shin
Minatomura, Kanagawa, Japan).

Naha Kanie is a poet. He marked his debut in 2010 as a winner of the Newcomer Prize of Eureka magazine. In 2015 he received
the Elsur Foundation Award, and in 2016 was awarded the 21st Nakahara Chuya Prize for his anthology of poems Yōisareta
Shokutaku (The Laid Table) (self-published, later released from Seidosha). In addition to publishing poems, essays, book reviews, etc. innewspapers and magazines, he is also involved in designing numerous poetry anthologies. In 2017 he starred in the NHK BS
Premium drama “Roudoku-ya (The Reader),” and participated in the “MOT Satellite” exhibition held at the Museum ofContemporary Art, Tokyo. In 2018, he was invited to the University of Iowa and a poetry festival in Finland to present live
reading performances. Since 2019, Kanie has served as a fellow member at the RAM Association organized by Tokyo Universityof the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media. He participated in “Art Sightama 2020” (Saitama, Japan), and “Mind Trail
Okuyamato” (2021, Nara, Japan), “The Words for Architecture” (2021, WHAT, Tokyo), and “Shomotsu no aru tokoro (Where theBooks Are)” (2021, Nakahara Chuya Memorial Museum, Yamaguchi, Japan).

■Please contact below for any image enquiries■
KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY PR: Jun Orikasa Exhibition: Kana Kawanishi

gallery@kanakawanishi.com +81 (0)3-5843-9128

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