Two Worlds, One Street

Two Worlds, One Street – a documentary series by Shota Fumoto, Tbilisi, 2026. A Russian painter's flat and a Georgian actor's family, fifteen minutes apart on the same avenue.

Two Worlds, One Street
Tbilisi, 2026

Since the war began in 2022, many Russians have come to Tbilisi. Ivan, a painter, left Russia when it started and reached the city in 2024. His flat is never empty: people come for drawing classes and tea, and stay for birthdays. I stayed there too.

Fifteen minutes away on the same avenue, Vaxo, a Georgian actor, took me into his family: the long feasts, the dressing room, the stage. His father, Pavle, an Honoured Artist of Georgia, is also an actor with the same theatre, which stands between the two homes. Even so, the people in the two homes rarely meet. A short walk away, on Rustaveli Avenue, people have gathered against the government every day since November 2024.

When I first arrived, I lived in an Italian yard, an old block of flats built around a shared courtyard. The Georgian women there fed me and taught me to say madloba, not spasiba. Once, two of them came with me to Ivan's flat without knowing it was a Russian's home. They could not settle.

I photographed both homes from May 2026, for about three months, as a Japanese outsider who belonged to neither side.