Studio Pietà (King Kong Komplex)

Overview

Studio Pietà (King Kong Komplex) tells the story of Simon Fujiwara’s attempt to restage and photograph a lost picture of his mother held in the arms of a Lebanese boyfriend. The photo was taken on a beach close to the Casino du Liban, where she worked as a cabaret dancer in the late 1960s.

In what starts as a seemingly simple reconstruction, Fujiwara begins to understand his role as director, and the unwanted powers he holds.

In the process of casting the models, designing the set and even selecting the makeup, he is drawn into a labyrinth of larger social and political questions to which he has no answers. King Kong, water pollution in Beirut, Michelangelo’s Pietà, the interrogation methods of the CIA and hair removal in Germany are just some of the subjects that spin out from this dense and convoluted narrative film and installation, in which a single image inspires numerous photographs.

2013

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 11

Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation