Simon Fujiwara @ Fondazione Prada, Milan - Who the Baer

Simon Fujiwara: Who the Baer

Fondazione Prada, Milan

2 March - 27 September 2021

SIMON FUJIWARA

Photo: Miro Kuzmanovic, Kunsthaus Bregenz

SIMON FUJIWARA

Drawing image for “Who the Bær”, 2020

Artwork: Simon Fujiwara / Photo: Bas Princen

Courtesy the artist

Fondazione Prada will reopen its doors in Milan on 2 March 2021 presenting its new exhibition “Who the Bær” by Simon Fujiwara. 

The work of artist SIMON FUJIWARA (London, UK, 1982; lives and works in Berlin) is a personal exploration of the human desire that underpins tourist attractions, historical icons, celebrities, “edutainment,” and neo-capitalism. In this seductive yet fraught arena, his work reveals the paradox of our simultaneous quest for fantasy and authenticity in the culture we consume. In his recent exhibitions —which include a full-scale reconstruction of the Anne Frank House (“Hope House”, 2017), a “rebranding campaign” of his former high school art teacher (“Joanne”, 2016-2018), and a theme park ride that takes you into the world of YouTube (“Empathy I”, 2018),— we observe a distorted reflection of the real world through the artist’s fantastical and sometimes disturbing universe.

For this new site-specific project conceived for the ground floor of the Podium in the Milan premises of Fondazione Prada, Simon Fujiwara introduces audiences to the fairytale world of Who the Bær, an original cartoon character that inhabits a fantasy universe created by the artist. Who the Bær is a cartoon bear without a clear character – “Who” as they are known, seems to have not yet developed a strong personality or instincts, they have no history, defined gender or even sexuality. Who the Bær only knows that they are an image, and they seek to define themselves in a world of other images. The world of Who the Bær is a flat, online world of pictures, yet one full of endless possibilities. Who the Bær can transform or adapt into any image they encounter, taking on the attributes and identities of those depicted within the image – human, animal or even object. In this sense the fantastical world of Who the Bær is a world of freedom: Who can be whoever they wish to be, Who can transcend time and place, Who can be both subject and object. Yet Who the Bær may never be able to overcome their one true challenge – to become anything more than just an image.

SIMON FUJIWARA

Drawing image for “Who the Bær”, 2020

Courtesy the artist

SIMON FUJIWARA

Sculptures for “Who the Bær”, 2020

Courtesy the artist; Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv/ Brussels; 

GioMARCONI, Milan; Taro Nasu, Tokyo;

Esther Schipper, Berlin

Photos © Jörg von Bruchhausen

Within his exhibition, Simon Fujiwara introduces the public to a coming-of-age story and postmodern fairytale, made of several cheerful and traumatic events. From focus groups to therapy sessions, from plastic surgery to global travels, from sexual fantasies to dystopian dreams, the artist portrays the formative process of a fictitious character as they interpret and appropriate the “real world” of images, distorting everything they see into the absurd logic of their personal universe.

Who the Bær’s fantasy adventures are presented at Fondazione Prada in a giant labyrinth made almost entirely from cardboard and recyclable materials and forming the shape of a giant bear. As visitors travel through the bear-like installation, they are introduced to the basic design and formation of the cartoon character of Who the Bær before embarking on a series of adventures that follow Who the Bær around their fairytale world. Told through drawings, collages, sculptures and animations, we witness Who the Bær in their perennial quest for an authentic self.

Inspired by the tradition of fairytales as well as modern animation movies, Simon Fujiwara uses the mechanisms of fantasy to explore some of the joys and traumas we face as a society possessed with images and spectacle.

“Who the Bær” is completed by a publication, which is part of Fondazione Prada’s Quaderni series. Conceived as an illustrated story book, it includes a conversation with the artist. The adventures of Who the Bær can be experienced on Instagram following their official account @whothebaer.

FONDAZIONE PRADA

Largo Isarco 2, 20139 Milano

fondazioneprada.org

Dan Flavin, Chiesa Rossa and Fondazione Prada, Milan

Dan Flavin 
Chiesa Rossa and Fondazione Prada, Milan
29 November 1997 - 31 January 1998

The Fondazione Prada presents two important projects by Dan Flavin (1933-1996) who, with Sol Le Witt, Donald Judd, Robert Morris and Carl Andre, was one of the main protagonists of the American minimalist art movement: Untitled 1996 is a permanent installation at the church Santa Maria in Chiesa Rossa while Works 1964 - 1981 is a selection of historically important works housed at the Fondazione Prada itself.

The work at the Chiesa Rossa was the last project conceived and designed by Dan Flavin before his death, and consists of a permanent site-specific installation donated to the Chiesa Rossa by the Fondazione Prada. This system of fluorescent lights was especially designed by the artist for the main nave and transepts of the Chiesa Rossa, perhaps with the intention of bringing a metaphysical dimension to the immateriality of his minimalist work.

The installation consists of fluorescent tubes of different colours and lengths which are placed horizontally and vertically, symmetrically and asymetrically about the space which, combined with the architecture of renowned architect Giovanni Muzio who designed the Chiesa Rossa in 1932, create a spectacular visual effect. This work continues the tradition of dialogue between visual research and places of worship, a significant theme in modern and contemporary art as well as in architecture from Matisse to Rothko, from Nevelson to Cucchi. The project also owes its existence to the cultural and pastoral initiatives of Don Giulio, parish priest at the Chiesa Rossa.

The second project involves two thematic installations of Dan Flavin's works at the Fondazione Prada of Milan curated by Michael Govan, director of the Dia Center for the Arts in New York.

The first of these consists of works of the series European Couples, 1966-1976, a group of six 8 ft.-wide squares of fluorescent tubing, each in a different colour. The composition is extremely simple: in each set of four tubes, the two vertical ones are pointed towards the wall while the horizontal ones are aimed towards the installation space. Each ensemble is placed diagonally with respect to the corner of the room. The Milan exhibition use a linear architectural layout designed by Dan Flavin himself.

The second part of the show consists of a selection of Monuments for V.Tatlin, 1964-1981. These pseudo-monuments - Dan Flavin used the term 'pseudo' to underline the ephemeral and temporary effect of the fluorescent tubes which produce light for 2100 hours before burning out - call to mind the image of the Monument at the Third International by Tatlin. They become an homage to the fleeting and communicative existence of light. This presentation also makes use of a zigzag architectural project conceived by the artist and so both European Couples and Monuments for V .Tatlin may be considered as fresh, new readings and re-presentations of historical works by this classic minimalist.

Because of the complexity of this ambitious project which documents the meeting between a contemporary artist and architecture, in particular that of the historic Chiesa Rossa designed by Muzio, the Fondazione Prada has decided to produce a book that brings together reflections and theoretical essays on the interweaving of art and the sacred, contemporary research and places of worship, sculpture and the church, a space of ritual socialisation and an imaginary one. The main aim of this volume, edited by Germano Celant, is to decode or interpret the relationships existing between religious and secular projects in order to identify a point of cohesion or osmosis between the two different perspectives. For this reason theoreticians, philosophers, architects and historians such as Carlo Bertelli and Germano Celant, Hubert Damish and Christine Gluckman, Michael Govan and Vittorio Gregotti, Fulvio Irace and Don Pier Luigi Lia, Mario Perniola and Gianni Vattimo have been invited to write on this theme.

FONDAZIONE PRADA, MILAN
www.fondazioneprada.org