Welcome to the world of Who the Baer, an original cartoon character created by the artist Simon Fujiwara. Who the Baer, or ‘Who’ as they lovingly known, is a cartoon bear that seemingly has no clear identity - no race, no gender, no sexuality and no nationality. With white fur, a golden heart and an impossibly long pink tongue, Who the Baer is simply a 2-Dimensional image that seeks identity affirmation within an endlessly abundant world of online images. Able to morph and shift into any character, person, object or ‘style’ they encounter, Who the Baer is free to limitlessly reinvent themselves, yet they lack the one thing a true identity is dependent on: Authenticity. But does a cartoon character wish to be authentic anyway? Perhaps it is enough for Who the Baer simply to appear authentic.

Since Who the Baer was invented over three years ago, the universe – or Whoniverse - of Fujiwara’s cartoon character has expanded from its humble origins as a set of early sketches and drawings into large-scale paintings and sculptures, installations, animations, a children’s book and even a series of merchandise under the umbrella “Whotique” – the Who the Baer boutique. The character, which operates as both a conceptual artwork and a brand, can be seen as Fujiwara’s testing of the limits of art in the age of hyper-consumerism and total image saturation. As such, Who the Baer spills across the borders of high conceptualism and sensuous figurativism, Warholian mass production and nostalgic ‘craftiness’. Yet at it’s heart, Who the Baer is a simple fairytale that mirrors the story and concerns of the times we live in – the good, the bad and the ugly - all with the lightness of touch characteristic of Fujiwara’s artistic approach.

This large-scale exhibition of Who the Baer is the first of its kind in Latin America and follows on from a series of acclaimed presentations that have traveled the world from Tokyo to Seoul, New York, Milan, Berlin and Rotterdam. Here at Lago Algo, Fujiwara has conceived of an entirely new, site-specific installation featuring a labyrinth of colorful sculptural walls that reference both Mexican Modernist architecture and theme park design. Set within a one-way system, we invite you to experience a broad range of works created almost entirely in the artists’ studio in Berlin, and culminating in a series of brand-new collages and paintings that remix and reinvent Mexican iconography.