Kunstinstituut Melly

For his first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, artist Simon Fujiwara presents a large body of works on paper centered around his creation of an original cartoon character, Who the Bær. Fujiwara began drawing and collaging versions of his bear during the first 2020 lockdown in Berlin, developing the concept of a contemporary subject that exists as a ‘total image searching for a self in the world of images’. Who the Bær since developed into a large-scale project manifesting in drawings, collages, sculptures, animations and animatronics. Taking a cartoon subject as a simplified lens to look at image culture, Fujiwara’s absurdist creations reflect on the complex mechanisms of defining a self in an image-dominated world. For this exhibition, the artist returns to the origins of his project presenting a personal archive of over 100 drawings and ‘thinking works.’ Together, they show the various ways the artist uses Who as a cartoon avatar through which to explore the pleasures and traumas, violence and joys of life in the mediated modern world. Who the Bær can also be followed via their Instagram account @whothebaer.

Curator: Rosa de Graaf