Nao Sugaya’s exhibition “randonneur,” the first one held at art & river bank, is based on her bicycle touring. In all parts of Japan, there are strange facilities that have been given the name “furusato” (which translates to “one’s hometown”). These facilities are built in regions that allow one to imagine one’s hometown in the “good old days” of Japan. But in actuality, their existences are spoiling the images that they claim to be recreating. Sugaya visited many of those facilities on a touring bicycle called a “randonneur.” However small the Japanese islands may be, these “furusato” facilities range over a wide area of the country. Where did she obtain such a strong ambition and energy to want to visit them? Without giving any direct answer to this question, she simply continued to collect images, film and sounds at those facilities. The more she proceeded with her exploration of the images of “furusato,” the further she withdrew from her original idea of “furusato.” Thus, her bicycle tour on the randonneur became a strange one in that the further she progressed, the more the remaining plans she had increased. As our eyes “touch” the images she collected, which are exhibited over the randonneur that she actually rode on, we are also drawn into that strange trip that she experienced.