Who the Bær

Simon Fujiwara

British Japanese artist Simon Fujiwara has spent over a decade exploring the mechanics of contemporary identity construction through several ambitious and renowned works that deftly navigate culturally potent topics. From a full reconstruction of the Anne Frank House – based on a model sold in the museum shop – to a rebranding campaign for his former art teacher after a topless tabloid media scandal, his work employs multiple formal approaches across video, sculpture, drawing, installation and performance. In his current work Who the Bær, Fujiwara created a ‘cartoon character as conceptual artwork’. Part being, part brand, Who the Bær exists in the ‘Whoniverse’ – a parallel world created by the artist. With seemingly no race, gender or clear sexual orientation, Who the Bær is in search of an identity in a world of endless images, constantly performing identities in their search for an authentic self.  Who the Bær is Fujiwara’s playful, dada-esque response to a world that is ‘increasingly extreme and incomprehensible – a world that is becoming Un-Baerable’.

Fujiwara’s recent solo exhibitions have been held at Fondazione Prada, Milan, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria and Lafayette Anticipations, Paris. He was nominated for Germany’s national Preis der Nationalgalerie and is the recipient of the Frieze Cartier Award and the Art Basel Baloise Art Prize. His work is in the collections of MoMA and Guggenheim Museums, NY, Tate, London, Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.