№034 05022024
Satoshi Fujiwara
Satoshi Fujiwara is a Berlin-based conceptual artist, photographer, and researcher.
His work dissects the relationship between imaging and society, addressing the core of visual culture through critical examination of violence, stress, identity, and media coverage within contemporary landscapes.
Diverging from the standards of photojournalism and an exclusively documentary dimension, he creates a new emerging lexicon.
Fujiwara's works have been presented internationally at key contemporary art and cultural institutions including Jameel Arts Centre Dubai, UAE; Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Canada; Fondazione Prada, Italy; La Boverie, Belgium; 21_21 Design Sight, Japan, among others.
His work dissects the relationship between imaging and society, addressing the core of visual culture through critical examination of violence, stress, identity, and media coverage within contemporary landscapes.
Diverging from the standards of photojournalism and an exclusively documentary dimension, he creates a new emerging lexicon.
Fujiwara's works have been presented internationally at key contemporary art and cultural institutions including Jameel Arts Centre Dubai, UAE; Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Canada; Fondazione Prada, Italy; La Boverie, Belgium; 21_21 Design Sight, Japan, among others.
Through this series of digital photography, the complex relationship between the state and its citizens is examined. As the hand-held camera captures the multiple law enforcement details, executing their duties across Berlin, Germany, the images are divested of their tactical function, suspending as the raw state of propaganda.
This process of revelation is particularly evident in the deconstructed accouterments of the Bereitschaftspolizei, the German riot police which are pieced together from fragments to form an armor-like surface, resembling the scales of ancient times. These so-called 'skins of state power' are comprised of a matrix of police-duty belts, hand-held protection devices, including pepper spray, firearms and ammunition, tasers, flashlights, batteries, gloves, window punches, and IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit). As the overlapping intruders progressively break through the layers of the skin, the detail of video recording devices of the BFE (Beweissicherungs- und Festnahmeeinheit), the German special units for arrests and securing evidence, press photographers, and onlookers' smartphones fiercely puncture the crowd control barrier in place.
This series, reminiscents a photomicrograph of skin tissues and a 5K drone footage, serves to magnify the sharply different points of view within this tight encounter. It is further suggested that the strategically unspecified format implies their boundless ability to propagate indefinitely in both digital and physical spaces, prompting a reconsideration of the fundamental structures of power.
This process of revelation is particularly evident in the deconstructed accouterments of the Bereitschaftspolizei, the German riot police which are pieced together from fragments to form an armor-like surface, resembling the scales of ancient times. These so-called 'skins of state power' are comprised of a matrix of police-duty belts, hand-held protection devices, including pepper spray, firearms and ammunition, tasers, flashlights, batteries, gloves, window punches, and IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit). As the overlapping intruders progressively break through the layers of the skin, the detail of video recording devices of the BFE (Beweissicherungs- und Festnahmeeinheit), the German special units for arrests and securing evidence, press photographers, and onlookers' smartphones fiercely puncture the crowd control barrier in place.
This series, reminiscents a photomicrograph of skin tissues and a 5K drone footage, serves to magnify the sharply different points of view within this tight encounter. It is further suggested that the strategically unspecified format implies their boundless ability to propagate indefinitely in both digital and physical spaces, prompting a reconsideration of the fundamental structures of power.
