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naok fujimoto

Artist, Curator, Interpreter

born in Tokyo/Japan

Education
Royal College of ArtMaster of Fine Arts  held by RCA, England, UK
自画像_edited.jpg

​About  "naok fujimoto

”naok fujimoto |藤本ナオ子” は、

アート・科学・哲学・対話をキーワードに、作品制作や展覧会、市民参加型ワークショップなどの社会的実践を行う日本人アーティストです。

ヤングケアラーとして、またサバイバーとしての経験を経て、長い制作のブランクののち、2020年前後から再びアートを世界と関わるための「言葉」として用いるようになりました。

近年は、ジェンダーや社会構造に内在する緊張や違和を主題に、日常の風景を観察し、交差性(インターセクショナリティ)の視点から捉え直す作品を、映像やパフォーマンスを中心に展開しています。

“アートとエンターテインメント”、“アートと笑い”といった、批評性とユーモアが共存する場に関心を持ち、親しみやすい形式と遊び心を通じて、アイデンティティや権力、社会構造が生み出す問いを、より多くの人々とシェアすることを目指しています。

 

その活動は、絵画・イラスト・写真・アニメーション・映像・レクチャー・パフォーマンスなど多岐にわたります。日常の出来事や物事を題材に、「見ること」と「見られること」の関係性を探るとともに、都市生活のささいな瞬間、大衆文化のファンタジー、集合的記憶の変遷などを扱っています。たとえば、家族のアーカイブ、ファウンド・イメージ、科学的図像、オブジェ、テキスト、ASMR的な音源などを素材に、コラージュ、消去、脱構築といった手法を用いながら、幻想と感覚のあわいを行き来するような作品を制作しています。

また、コロナ禍以降に制作をスタートした《劇場型レクチャー・映像+パフォーマンス》では、女性の一人称語りをとおして、日常に潜むジェンダー観や社会的ヒエラルキーを問い直しています。これは、ひとり生活者としての実感を出発点とし、交差性の視点からアートが社会とどのように接続できるかを探る、《naok fujimoto |藤本ナオ子》の新たな挑戦でもあります。

”naok fujimoto 藤本 ナオ子”|アーティスト/キュレーター/哲学対話の実践

東京都出身。Royal College of Art(英国王立芸術大学院)ファインアート修士課程修了。

アート、科学、哲学、そして対話を軸に、作品制作・展覧会の企画・市民との哲学対話など、領域横断的な社会実践を行う。Royal College of Art修了後、東京工業大学大学院 (現:東京科学大学)にて、最先端ロボットの研究プロジェクトに参加。その後は教育分野にも活動を広げ、東京都公立学校での教職経験をはじめ、お茶の水女子大学、大阪大学・東京大学における、人材育成やサイエンス・コミュニケーション、地域社会におけるコミュニティサービスの調査研究など、多角的なフィールドで実践を重ねる。現在は、アーティスト/キュレーター/対話実践者という3つの視点を行き来しながら、アートを通じて人と社会の新たな関係性を探っている。

 

・キュレーション・コレクティブ《Geek Love Project》代表

・対話のアクティビティ《哲愕カフェ by NAoK》主宰​

https://naokfujimoto.com 

geekloveproject.tokyo@gmail.com(お仕事のご依頼やご相談を承ります)

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"naok fujimoto" is a Japanese artist whose socially engaged practice centers around art, science, philosophy, and dialogue. Her work spans a wide range of formats including visual art, exhibitions, and community-based workshops.

Having experienced life as a young carer and survivor—and following a long hiatus from artistic practice—art has once again become her language for engaging with the world since around 2020.

Naok’s recent works explore the frictions and contradictions inherent in gender and social structures. Through video and performance, she observes and reframes scenes from everyday life, employing an intersectional perspective to address complex realities.

 

Naok is particularly interested in the space where art intersects with entertainment, and where critical inquiry and humor can coexist. By incorporating accessible formats and a spirit of playfulness, she seeks to spark dialogue around identity, power, and the social systems that shape our lives.

Naok’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses painting, illustration, photography, animation, video, and theatrical lecture-performances. Drawing from scenes and objects in daily life, she examines the relationship between seeing and being seen—engaging with themes such as urban micro-events, pop cultural fantasy, and the shifting landscape of collective memory. Using family archives, found images, scientific visuals, objects, and text, her works employ techniques of collage, erasure, and deconstruction, moving between the imaginary and the sensory.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, "naok fujimoto" has developed a series of theatrical lecture-performances that reconsider gender norms and social hierarchies through a feminine first-person voice. These works represent both a personal and artistic challenge: an exploration of how art can connect with society through the lens of lived experience and intersectionality.

 

"naok fujimoto"  | Artist / Curator / Practitioner of Philosophical Dialogue

Their interdisciplinary practice is grounded in art, science, philosophy, and dialogue. They engage in a wide range of socially oriented activities, including art production, exhibition curation, and facilitating public philosophical dialogues.

After completing their studies at the RCA, "naok fujimoto" joined an advanced robotics research project at the Tokyo Institute of Technology(Now; Science Tokyo). They later expanded their work into the field of education—teaching in Tokyo’s public schools and contributing to talent development, science communication, and community-based research at Osaka University and the University of Tokyo.

Today, naok fujimoto works at the intersection of three roles: artist, curator, and dialogue practitioner. Their ongoing practice explores new relationships between individuals and society through the lens of art.

・https: //naokfujimoto.com

geekloveproject.tokyo@gmail.com

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*Education
University of Tokyo/Art Management of Socially Engaged Art (AMSEA) 
https://amseaut.blogspot.com/p/alumni.html
Royal College of Art, Master of Arts held by RCA, England, UK 

Goldsmiths College, University of London Postgraduate Diploma/Creative arts

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*Award Grants
Best Presentation for audience awarded by University of Tokyo/AMSEA 2018
Logo Design Competition awarded by Fukushi Club Cooperative 2010
Recipe Competition awarded by Ajinomoto Co.Ltd & The Asahi Shimbun Company 
Grant and Fellowship of Royal College of Art 
Fellowship of PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), London 
*Work Experience
Traveller: supported by ArtsCouncil Shizuoka, 2023
Researcher: The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 2015-
https://researchmap.jp/1204naox
Researcher: Osaka University, 21c-Kaitokudo, Osaka. 2014-2015
Junior high school and  Elementary school of Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education Center 
Ochanomizu University, Tokyo
Science and Technology, Tokyo 
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo
Cit'e International des Art's; Paris, France
*Curation
Geek Love Project Vol.4,《Collective Memory》Could I talk about my own story?,Tokyo
supported by the British Council,2023
Geek Love Project Vol.1, Go Beyond Stereotypes, Tokyo, supported by ArtsCouncil Tokyo, 2019
https://geekloveproject.wixsite.com/info
https://www.artscouncil-tokyo.jp/ja/what-we-do/support/program/43937/
Small Talk Project Vol.1 with Small Talk Project, Tokyo, 2018  
https://smalltalkinf.wixsite.com/stp2018

*Story

naok fujimoto moved to the UK to study contemporary art and sculpture at the Royal College of Art after experiencing life as a young carer and survivor.

In London, naok met two British artists (Professor Glyn Williams and Helen Chadwick) with distinct styles and approaches to expression. Through their contrasting perspectives, naok explored a wide range of artistic expressions and ways of thinking, engaging in dialogues that bridged art, science, and philosophy. This formative experience proved invaluable. During a visit to Helen Chadwick’s studio in London, Chadwick offered this advice to naok: "The life of an artist is very slow and long, so don't worry and don't be rushed. I’ve endured it the same way. You can do it." These words continue to inspire naok today.

After earning an MA from the Royal College of Art, naok back to Japan and joined a cutting-edge robotics research project at the Tokyo Institute of Technology(Now; Science Tokyo), drawn by an interest in robotics as a form of “moving sculpture.” Later, naok expanded activities as a research fellow at Osaka University and the University of Tokyo, engaging in science communication, community outreach, and human resource development. Collaborating with scientists, researchers, science museums, local governments, and volunteers, naok helped develop programs creating spaces for public dialogue. These efforts are viewed as “invisible installations”—a form of social art.

During this period, naok also resumed caregiving responsibilities for family, a deeply challenging chapter. Reflecting on this, it is acknowledged that aspects of women’s lives—though not exclusively women—often remain beyond individual control.

A turning point came in 2017 when the passing of several relatives led naok to reconnect with art. These experiences underpin the current focus on gender, social hierarchy, communication, and the relationship between individuals and societal frameworks.

Around the same time, naok met Japanese video art pioneer Ko Nakajima (1941–2025), whose work inspired a rethinking of what it means to live as an artist. Nakajima’s life-spanning work My Life (1977–), held in MoMA’s collection, explores themes of life and death and deeply resonated, helping reclaim an identity as an artist.

Nakajima shared:
"Continuing to create art is a long journey. It may bring conflicts with family, but you must keep fighting."


As an artist active well into his eighties, these words gave strength to face familial struggles.

Until his passing in Feb. 2025, naok and Nakajima maintained a creative friendship, collaborating on exhibitions and “Philosophy Dialogues.”

Today, naok continues to explore how art can connect with society through the lens of intersectionality—an ongoing personal and artistic journey responding to the complexities of our time and place.

​contact
New Act of Knowledge by naok fujimoto
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