Fujiwara's installation Phallusies (An Arabian Mystery, 2010) tells the true story of the discovery of a giant, ancient stone phallus beneath the foundations of a new museum building, somewhere in the Arabian Desert. No records of its existence or disappearance exist. Some say it was destroyed, others saw an unlabelled crate departing for an unknown destination. The truth is in the hands of four British men who were working on the museum's construction site. However, when Fujiwara commissioned them to re-fabricate the phallus as they remembered it, arguments ensued. One witness remembers testicles, another claims it was simply a column. Some say it was three metres long, others eight. Size is not the question here – it is the shape that counts. But like any good erotic story, the truth is a slippery thing...
Simon Fujiwara (born 1982 in London) lives and works in Berlin. He studies Architecture at Cambridge University and Fine Art at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste (Städelschule), Frankfurt am Main.Recent solo exhibitions include Letters from Mexic', Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, and Phallusies, Gio Marconi, Milan (2011); Welcome to the Hotel Munber, Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt am Main, and Art Basel 41 – Art Statement (2010). Selected group exhibitions include Open House, Singapore Biennale 2011; 29th São Paulo Biennale, and Manifesta 8 Biennial, Murcia (2010). In 2010 he was the recipient of both the Baloise Prize at Art Basel and the Cartier Award, Frieze Art Fair, London.
The Installation was part of the show "Based in Berlin", 8.6. - 24.7.11. in Atelierhaus Monbijoupark, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k. and Berlinische Galerie. www.basedinberlin.com