Sou Fujimoto Celebrated in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Japan House, opened in August 2018, celebrated the career of Sou Fujimoto in an exhibition. The installation, entitled SOU FUJIMOTO: FUTURES OF THE FUTURE, presented around 100 models and large-scale photos illustrating the various projects by the architect, born in 1971 and winner of the 2012 Venice Biennale Golden Lion. 

The ‘primitive future’, a return to roots

Among the projects highlighted was his majestic Serpentine Gallery pavilion in London which contributed to his international fame, as well as Toilet in Nature, an installation that explores the unique relationship between the architect and the public/private space, and the Arbre Blanc in Montpellier, a 16-storey building with 193 balconies suspended in space that had just recently been completed. 

All of these works respond to an approach that Fujimoto calls the ‘primitive future’. This paradox is the perpetual drive of humans to return to their origins (the cave, or ‘the nest’, in his own words) to create new spaces and open up new horizons.

SOU FUJIMOTO: FUTURES OF THE FUTURE (2018), an exhibition of Sou Fujimoto’s works held at the Japan House Los Angeles from 27 October 2018 to 6 January 2019.