Shimabuku

Born in 1969 in Kobe, Shimabuku is an artist who collects unusual encounters. When he was younger, he wanted to become a poet or tourist guide. Today he is an artist, producer and smuggler of stories, customs and myths which he observes and collects on his journeys. Taking on the role of a Candide-like figure, Shimabuku travels the world, interacts with strangers, and converses with nature, instigating moments of poetry, humor, and wonderment, but also creating bridges between the specificities of different cultures and localities (nowadays a relevant position, considering our global world as a made up of a multitude of localities). Each of his works (including videos, sculptural installations, performance documentations, and photography) tells the story of these improbable encounters across borders, species, and states of being. This artist experiments all kinds of interaction, pushing back the limits of the physics and the imaginary.