Simon Fujiwara
Simon Fujiwara, Future/Perfect, 2012
Re-performed for Kaldor Public Art Project 27: 13 Rooms, curated by Klaus Biesenbach and Hans Ulrich Obrist, at Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay, Sydney, 11-21 April 2013.
Simon Fujiwara
born 1982 in London, England
lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Future/Perfect, 2012
Simon Fujiwara often begins with the written word and combines script-writing, installation and performance to create compelling and complex narratives in his works. For 13 Rooms, Fujiwara enlisted local athletic-bodied young men to perform his work Future/Perfect, 2012. As each man lies on a tanning bed he learns a foreign language via headphones, audibly sounding out words and phrases. The artist describes the piece as a kind of educational entertainment whereby we visibly watch a transformation that is both interior and exterior.
In 2010 Fujiwara was awarded the prestigious Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel and the Cartier Award at Frieze Art Fair. His work has been shown in major institutions and exhibitions around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. In 2012, Tate St Ives hosted his first major solo survey exhibition, Simon Fujiwara: Since 1982.