Yasumasa Morimura. No Pain No Gain

Morimura has been working as a conceptual photographer and filmmaker for over three decades and has become one of the most important representatives of “staged photography” and Appropriation Art. With the use of props, costumes, makeup, and digital manipulation, he has turned himself into subjects of the Western artistic and cultural canon. Through restaging and reinvention of iconic photographs and paintings of art history, Morimura comments on Japan’s relationship (especially in the 1960s and ’70s) with the absorption and integration of Western culture. His works challenge the viewer’s gaze, question identity and gender constructions, and are therefore also an artistic reflection on media.

The catalogue also contains a talk Morimura held for the opening, entitled The two "I's" roaming around inside of me.