Overview

Shimabuku makes art about the little things in life: cooking, fruit and vegetables, fishing and cardboard boxes have all been subjects in his performances, films and interactive works. The artist’s work reveals his deep interest in the poetry of the everyday and the strangeness inherent in the most ordinary of situations. At the heart of the Berlin-based artist’s work is a knack for making the familiar strange and to create situations that could later be told to others, turning them into fables, tales, stories and possibly life-changing events.

Shimabuku’s Sharjah Biennial 11 project is no exception. Join the artist as he discusses his participatory performance, Shimabuku’s Boat Trip at the Higher Colleges of Technology.

This event is held in collaboration with the Japan Foundation.

Shimabuku was born in Kobe, Japan in 1969. Since 2004, he has lived in Berlin, Germany. His performance and installation work proposes new ways of life and new methods of communication. Shimabuku has had solo exhibitions at CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France (2011), and daadgalerie, Berlin (2008, 2007), among numerous other venues.

His many group exhibitions include the Yokohama Triennale, Japan (2011); The Street, Whitechapel, London, UK (2008); Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery, London (2008); São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2006); Liverpool Biennial, UK (2006); Utopia Station, Venice Biennale, Italy (2003); and Elysian Fields, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2000).