Hikaru Fujii
Residency period
22 October – 23 December 2019
About
The artistic practice of artist and filmmaker Hikaru Fujii (b. 1976, Japan) reflects his strong belief that art results from an intimate relationship between society and history. His work probes modern education and social systems in Japan and Asia often employing strategies of reenactment to address the contemporary relevance of historical events. He recently received a solo exhibition at KADIST, Paris, France (2019). His work has also been exhibited at Aichi Triennale, Japan (2019); Fast Forward Festival 5, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece (2018); Centre George Pompidou Metz, France (2017), and Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan (2016) among others. He was awarded the Nissan Art Award 2017 Grand Prix.
Focus
In November 2017, an article published by scholars from the Korean Women’s Development Institute shed new light on the conditions of “comfort stations” run by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese occupation of Singapore (1942-45). The questionable term “comfort stations” refers to brothels, set up for the use of military personnel, which “employed” women abducted from countries under the Japanese rule (mostly Korea and China). The report estimates that, in Singapore, approximately 600 Korean women were forced into prostitution and it also revealed the existence of 52 records about them in the Oral History Centre at the National Archives of Singapore. Official accounts surrounding this infamous practice are still a matter of controversy and diplomatic friction between Japan and the other countries involved. Continuing his scrutiny of Japanese identity by scavenging the country’s past, Hikaru Fujii plans to conduct extensive archival research on the history of the brothels and collaborate with scholars from various disciplines related to the subject.
Residencies brochure (October – December 2019)
Image credit: Hikaru Fujii, Record of Coastal Landscape, 2011-2014. Courtesy the artist.
Public programmes
Read More
In the present times when hypotheses are easily turned into “facts” within SNS (social networking services), more layered understandings of the notions of truth arise from a creative use of historical archives and the reproduction of past events. Unfolding through interdisciplinary collaborations with specialists from various fields, Hikaru Fujii’s works address compelling contemporary issues through extensive fieldwork and in-depth research on cultures and histories specific to a certain country, or region. His aesthetic strategy breathes new meanings into significant recent or historical events ultimately triggering a critical perception of the current state of society. In this lecture performance, Fujii will expand upon his methodologies of re-enactment as a practice of political resistance and discuss how his work enlace the multiple terrains of archaeology, anthropology, history, and art.
BIOGRAPHY
The artistic practice of artist and filmmaker Hikaru Fujii (b. 1976, Japan) reflects his strong belief that art results from an intimate relationship between society and history. His work probes modern education and social systems in Japan and Asia often employing strategies of reenactment to address the contemporary relevance of historical events. He recently received a solo exhibition at KADIST, Paris, France (2019). His work has also been exhibited at Aichi Triennale, Japan (2019); Fast Forward Festival 5, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece (2018); Centre George Pompidou Metz, France (2017), and Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan (2016) among others. He was awarded the Nissan Art Award 2017 Grand Prix.
Image: Hikaru Fujii, The Primary Fact, 2018, video still, nine-channel video, 73 min. Courtesy the artist.