Simon Fujiwara: It’s a Small World

At the core of the work of British-Japanese artist Simon Fujiwara is a question—what does it mean to be a “self” in the 21st century? With humour, inventiveness, delight and rigor, his works reflect on existential quandaries such as: How should one construct a self today? How has technology altered our identities? Is there such thing as an authentic “me”?

The Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma is pleased to announce It’s a Small World, Simon Fujiwara’s first solo exhibition in Finland.

From performative lectures, video installations and paintings, to the creation of entire themed “worlds,” Fujiwara’s decade-long practice employs a range of artistic strategies that seek to expand our notions of race, gender, national and sexual identities in a world increasingly mediated by technology and images. Often performing and even parodying his own identity in his work, he confronts these potent cultural topics in unexpected ways—mining fields such as advertising or theme park design, or drawing on art historical strategies, from Dadaism to Pop and Conceptual art.

Fujiwara’s work is informed by his early studies in architecture, and operate as “imaginary structures” in which ethical and moral conundrums can coexist with the fantastical, surreal and absurd. These structures create spaces in which disconcerting aspects of life under 21st century capitalism can be examined in a playful and even pleasurable way.

The exhibition provides an introduction to the artist’s practice. It is curated by Kiasma’s chief curator João Laia.