Simon Shim-Sutcliffe
Zone, 2024
0’34’’
video, colour, sound 

The Black Box Warsaw, simultaneously with Adam Shiu-Yang Shaw’s exhibition “Instrument Cluster”, will host a screening of a new work by Canadian artist Simon Shim-Sutcliffe (b. 1997, Toronto). 

The film was previously presented at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. The upcoming screening includes e.i. Museum of Contemporary Art in Panama. 

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The 34-minute film Zone, reflects on how liquid infrastructure operates within the space of abandoned memory, and the ruins of successive empires. Contrasting the constructed landscape of the Panama Canal, an artificial well is staged in an abandoned parking lot, mirroring the man-made Gatun Lake within the Panama Canal’s water system. Drawing on his family’s lineage as Chinese immigrants who worked on the Canal, Shim-Sutcliffe charts the construction of forgotten images, demonstrating how fluid landscapes have been instrumental in directing our collective fictions of progress. Zone uses archival materials, aerial tracking shots, 16mm and digital film, phone footage, stage design, and collage, to explore the overlapping political and cultural forces that have shaped this site.

Simon Shim-Sutcliffe (b. 1997, Toronto) makes films, earthworks, and collaborative installations with Rosario Aninat. He graduated in 2023 from the Städelschule in Frankfurt. Recent solo exhibitions include Bonny Poon / Conditions, Toronto (2024), Shower, Seoul (2024), and Towards, Toronto (2023). Recent Exhibitions with Rosario Aninat include Pech, Vienna (2024); Etta, Dusseldorf (2023), and Mutter, Amsterdam (2022). Recent group exhibitions include FRAC Ile de France, Romainville, (2024); Shore, Vienna (2024); Bonny Poon / Conditions, Toronto (2024); Staedelschule, Frankfurt (2023); 112 Hudson St, New York City (2023). His work has recently been screened at Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York City (2025). He has been awarded the Linklater LLP Rundgang Prize (2021), the Hessiche Kulturstiftung Travel Stipendium (2025), and his work is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts (2022, 2024, and 2025), the Ontario Arts Council (2022, and 2024), and the Toronto Arts Council (2022).