SIMON FREUND – A Young Conceptual Artist, Munich
Alex Rückheim
Simon Freund is not only a close friend of ours, but he’s first and foremost an inspiring conceptual artist. A provocative thinker with a weakness for considered design, Simon lives and breathes somewhere along the lines planner by day and creative by night. He earns his daily bread at renowned furniture company Vitsœ who’s long-living products are rooted in the design philosophy of infamous product designer Dieter Rams - one of the few companies he truly values and respects. And ‘by night’, he conceptualises and creates…
Born in Königstein im Taunus – a dreamy little town in Germany – Simon’s work primarily focuses on the interplay between design and functionality, the concept of value and contemporary consumerism.
Before Simon decided to pave the way for a more artistic expression of his work, he was running the premium lifestyle brand SIMON&ME (later Simon Freund) that he had founded back in 2010. As an autodidact, he has been working on numerous projects spanning from opening his own Berlin-based concept store – LOCAL – to web design, branding and several published works of art.
“I don’t really think I’m an artist, it’s just the best description for what I’m currently pursuing.”
One of the projects Simon is currently working on is fittingly titled all i possess – an ongoing online art installation that draws upon the notions of transparency, consumption and relentless materialism. All of the objects displayed on the site belong to the artist and have either been purchased by him or gifted to him at any given point in time. Documented with meticulous accuracy, all i possess not only reflects on the concept of ownership but rightly raises the question: how much is enough? Simon is currently living and working in Munich.
The composition of images below is a personal selection of Simon's Favourite Works of Art, Favourite Products and the things that inspire him.
Cedes Milano
Chrome Toothpaste/Tube Squeezer on Black Base – via The Line
Hartwig Klappert – Waldinseln & Waldfahnen
Alicja Kwade
EADEM MUTATA RESURGO 3, 2013
door
216 x 50 x 30 cm
unique
A shot of Simon´s wardrobe at his home in Munich.
Kim De Ruysscher – crumbled paper
BRANCUSI BARRETTE by Sophie Buhai
Kiyoshi Mino
“Common Chimpanzee” (Pan Troglodytes)
via Chamber NYC
Metal Handstamp
Claire Rothstein – Margaux Brooke for P Magazin
Nicole Werners – Infrastruktur, 2015
Ian McIntyre – A Ton Of Clay
Hannes Caspar
muller van severen – cuttingboards, 2011
Linck Keramik – V5 by Margrit Linck
Gino Sarfatti – Mod. 548, 1951
Vitsoe 620 photographed by Rich Stapelton for Cereal Magazine
DOCUMENT – repetition and difference #03
‘repetition and difference’ Thers is a difference between those that are repeated, creating a different repetition.
Vitsoe 621
Robert Mapplethorpe – 23. Calla Lily, 1987 ( black and white )
‘His vast, provocative, and powerful body of work has established him as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century.’