Kenji Chiga "To Begin With, We Must Try To Do Things Ourselves."

Finished

BUG, which is operated by Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd., will hold a solo exhibition by Kenji Chiga. This exhibition is being organized in line with one of BUG’s activity directives, namely “Providing Career Support,” to serve as a stepping stone for an artist looking to take their career to the next level.

Chiga won the Grand Prize at the 16th “1_Wall” Photography Competition in 2017 with his entry “Bird, Night, and Then,” which addressed aspects of Indian society such as its caste system, poverty, and its overbearing emphasis on academic credentials. At “1_Wall,” the artist was praised for his perspective, understanding of social phenomena in a structured manner, his ability to edit in such a way that blends fiction and non-fiction, and his adroit handling of the photographic medium. As the competition’s Grand Prize winner, he also held his first solo exhibition, “Suppressed Voice,” at Guardian Garden in 2018. In terms of international acclaim, Chiga won the newcomer award at the 8th Dali International Photography Exhibition in China (2019), was shortlisted for the Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award Arles at the Rencontres d’Arles International Festival of Photography in France (2019, 2022), and was named by the British Journal of Photography in its annual list of “Ones To Watch” in 2019.

Chiga’s practice has been to create work based on social issues close to himself, such as the connection between poverty and suicide, exposing the social structures that cause these problems and the perspectives of those involved. Chiga takes a bird’s-eye view of these problems and the people concerned, and his stance of ensuring neutrality through years of scrupulous research is evident. Underlying this approach is a conscious effort to avoid setting up binary oppositions, and a hope that viewers will gain a sense of their interest in social issues. His works have come to act as a springboard for viewers to engage their creativity concerning society and others.

Chiga started his career as a photographer, but he also works outside of photography. He chooses the most appropriate mode of expression for the theme at hand, which might be video, books, or installations incorporating such elements. Further, given Chiga’s view that simply capturing events is not the only way to approach a problem, his works are research-based but always incorporate fictional elements.

Chiga has been researching special fraud for around three years since 2019, and this exhibit will present new work that has emerged from that research on the themes of the social structures and individuals involved. There was a downward trend in losses caused by special fraud between 2014, the peak, and 2021 when Chiga first exhibited work on this topic. Over the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the figure started to rise again, with 2022 marking the first uptick in eight years. Underlying this, no doubt, were changes to individual lives brought on by shifts in society and the times, and at this exhibition, Chiga will present works that focus on this area.

Tokyo Station is a place where people seemingly from all walks of life come and go, from businesspeople and students to tourists. At BUG, just a stone’s throw away, multiple perspectives on a single crime will be brought to light—It might seem to you, and to others in this to and fro, that the circumstances of the criminals and victims have no bearing on your own life. And yet, after seeing this exhibition, visitors will be unable to avoid thinking more deeply about the complex connections between all living in society, and the influence on each other.

Schedule

Mar 6 (Wed) 2024-Apr 14 (Sun) 2024