I headed to the next destination, two small islands, Ogijima and Megijima. As they are literally read in the Kanji characters, each word means “man” and “woman”. Both island is located right next to each other.

I was in a ferry from Takamatsu Port visiting to Megijima. On the way to the island, a massive “Ship of the Zipper” by Yasuhiro Suzuki could be found. The view of vessel glides through the water looked like a zipper opening up the sea. The humorous picture touched hearts of the visitor.

Organized by leading galleries, there opened a pop-up “Fukutake House” in the building of former Megijima Elementary School and Preschool, which were currently not being used. The name of the project came from the top director of the art festival, Soichiro Fukutake who transformed Naoshima into an art field and now trying to change Teshima as well. As it reflected Mr. Fukutake’s wide network of the contemporary art, art works selected carefully from leading galleries all over the world were featured in the space where visitors were deeply impressed by. A charcoal drawing animation in a classroom “Zephyr” by Naoyuki Tsuji from Tomio Koyama Gallery reminded me of my childhood memory in the elementary school.

“Lost Paradise” by a photographer, Hiroshi Sugimoto from Gallery Koyanagi was a humorous piece that was comprised of “wit” using various items left in the elementary school. Although it was exhibited by the gallery and there were other his photograph works exhibited in Naoshima, his unique work could only be existed this place.

There was another film work which I just got interested. It is “Phantom Island” by Jun Yang from Vitamin Creative Space in China. The Taiwanese artist created an imaginary island located on the border line on the sea between Taiwan, China, and Japan. Then suddenly the fabricated island made us rethink our identity. It also reminded us about Senkaku Island where it has been claimed by both China and Japan as their territory.

During waiting for a ferry from Megijima to Ogijima, I swam in the sea. While Japanese summer is hot and humid, islands in Seto Inland Sea are in dry climate and my wet clothes dried very quickly after my swim. People could enjoy the blessings of nature between seeing exhibits in each island.