"This depicts Guernica after the battle. The figures are no longer fighting. They're in a giant pile. They're exhausted and there's a sunrise on a new day behind them. The title of the work is A Whole New World (for Who?). It's asking what's going to happen after the conflicts that we have. Who's going to be taken into that new world?"
"I was trying to look at the idea of what happens after Duchamp, Warhol and Sturtevant-where you get to the point where conceptualism becomes almost like copying an artwork. Where do you go next when you're looking at that idea of hyper-referentiality? And with who? It became this character that I could put all these concepts in, embodying them as a kind of lovable cutesy figure which is how we need to consume things."
"I looked at the plan of Mudam and I noticed that it looked like a theme park. So I thought-I can create different lands in different rooms. My projects are like a weird distorted Disneyland... The themes of today-they're porn, disease."
Simon Fujiwara's exhibition at Mudam Luxembourg features a reinterpretation of Picasso's Guernica, showcasing his character Who the Baer amidst a chaotic scene of bodies and conflict. The work, titled A Whole New World (for Who?), reflects on the aftermath of battles and the uncertainties of the future. Fujiwara also shares personal experiences, including his battle with syphilis, and pays tribute to the late Japanese gay porn star Koh Masaki. The exhibition is designed like a theme park, with various zones addressing contemporary issues such as porn and disease.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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