FURUKATA Taro

Profile

Born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1975. Taro Furukata received his MFA from the Berlin Weissensee School of Art in Berlin, Germany, where he lives and works since 2004. His solo and group exhibitions include, "Grainy, Blurry: Taro Furukata & Andreas Sell" (Japan Foundation Cologne, Germany, 2013), "body | border | body" (Tokyo Wonder Site Berlin, Germany, 2013), "GOOD LIFE: the 53rd October Salon" (The former building of the Geodetic Institute, Belgrade, Serbia, 2012), "Collection n°1" (INTERIOR and the collectors, Lyon, France, 2011), "Specific Banality" (Galeria Naprzeciw, Poznan, Poland, 2011), "UEBERARBEITET - Mart-Stam Prize 2009" (Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, 2010), "An Audio Tour through Berlin by Karin Sander" (The Temporaere Kunsthalle Berlin, Germany, 2009). In 2008 he received Grants for Young Artists from Pola Art Foundation, Tokyo, Japan.

About works / performance

I have been interested in social engagement as a foreigner. Especially the transformation of behavior, attitude and language, which happens through a participation in a foreign society. "Foreigner" means not only a person who lives abroad, but also doesn't feel a sense of belonging to his/her community. In the process to become a part of the community, we have to accept its rules, regulations, conventions and language.  The acceptance is a never-ending transformation through measuring differences and similarities between others and myself. Those social psychological changes including behavior, attitude and language are not easily visible. In my practice I focused on those "invisible transformation" and turn them installation and sculpture.