Revolution is Simon Fujiwara’s first solo show in France. Devised around the Foundation’s recently renovated building, Revolutiongroups large-scale works and installations, including two major new commissions produced with Lafayette anticipations. It carries on a dialogue with the artist that began in 2014, with the enactment of his New Pompidou for the Foundation’s prefiguration programme.
Via a group of works shown throughout the Foundation’s galleries, Simon Fujiwara addresses the importance within our society of mass media and the fetishisation of the individual experience in an era of new technologies. His practice forms a complex and critical response to the omnipresent need for self-presentation in contemporary society.
The exhibition opens with a unique immersive experience. Empathy I (2018) was inspired by the artist’s experiences of popular leisure sites, from historical tourist attractions such as Neuschwanstein Castle to theme parks such as Disneyland. Closely collaborating with a company that designs theme park rides, Simon Fujiwara has developed his own immersive simulator experience which, rather than dealing with fantasy or historical experiences, brings the viewers into the “real world” by simulating found footage and first person perspective camerawork. The show continues with the Joanne series which revolves around a number of large-format photographs and a film. Joanne Salley was Simon Fujiwara’s secondary school art teacher who, in 2011, was forced to resign after topless photographs of her were circulated without her permission. The series points to the tabloids’ ability to destroy this former beauty queen and, more widely, questions women’s image in the mainstream media.