Three stretched but unpainted canvases hanging freely in the room, as well as three bundles of the same fabric of natural fibers distributed on the floor, are works by the Korean artist Kimsooja that KEWENIG Palma is showing in the Oratori de Sant Feliu as an installation titled Meta-Painting.

'Meta-Painting' is about painting that is not executed; painting that addresses painting without needing paint. Kimsooja leads the visitors to the point of departure of a journey whose destination is nothing less than gaining insight into our existence and the world in which we live.

Based in Seoul, Paris and New York, international conceptual artist Kimsooja (b. 1957) has for the past four decades oriented her practice in alignment with the totality of art and life. Kimsooja participates in BIENAL SUR 2021, an artistic endeavor that seeks to break down cultural barriers and connect the world in the pandemic era, through an exhibition titled KIMSOOJA BUENOS AIRES. Chapter 1: Kimsooja. The Encounter with the Other (2021.09.10-12.23), KIMSOOJA BUENOS AIRES. Chapter 2: Kimsooja. Nomad (2021.09.15-11.21) and Chapter 3 at Korean Cultural Center (CCC). This solo presentation comprises 26 works of video and film, including A Needle Woman, as well as large-scale installations, objects and photographs displayed from September 2 to December 15 in major museums and theaters across Buenos Aires as well as the Korean Cultural Center. The third edition of BIENAL SUR proposes a culturally open topography of art that respects the diversity of different cultures and addresses ecological awareness, ways of living, art politics and issues of transit and migration. Such themes resonate with Kimsooja’s longstanding artistic contemplation of the world’s order, cycles and borders and reflects her efforts to transcend various media with a consistent emphasis on compassion and humanity.

Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina and host city of BIENAL SUR, is a multicultural metropolis that has embraced immigrant populations from Europe, Africa and Asia throughout significant historical incidents including Spanish colonization, World Wars I and II and the Algerian War. Kimsooja installs several works around the city’s harbor, a place where immigrants to Buenos Aires first came ashore, revealing a new symbolic significance as they transpose the meaning of migration from the artist’s personal realm into one of universal empathy. Bottari Truck – Migrateures (2008) symbolically portrays the journey of an immigrant in Paris by wrapping and unwrapping a bottari (bundle) before departing; the concept of movement associated with bottari is visualized in the form of a container in recent works Bottari: 1999-2019 and its extended five-color (Obangsaek) container Bottari:2021; and a documentary film series, Thread Routes (2010-2019), poetically considers the universality of human culture as it merges natural landscapes with traditional textile cultures around the world. Kimsooja’s works actively engage with spaces that symbolize the city’s diversity and history of immigration, opening new possibilities for individuals of different backgrounds to coexist.

The National University of Tres de Febero’s Museum of Immigration (MUNTREF), which was built to commemorate the arrivals of immigrants from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America in the late 19th century, features Bottari:2021 on its façade, while A Needle Woman (2005) appears inside. Archive of Mind, a participatory installation of dry clay balls set on a large elliptical table, invites audiences to join in a contemplative communal performance by holding the clay balls in their hands and rolling them across the table while listening to the sound of Kimsooja's murmuring voice in Unfolding Spheres (2016). As both discrete individuals and a collective community, the audience shares the materiality of the clay as well as the inner aesthetic journey of clearing one’s mind. The group of uniquely shaped clay balls are produced as the axes of encounters among numerous sets of intersecting hands and signify the meetings of all beings scattered throughout the cosmos, who coexist through connected relations. In To Breathe (2021), installed at the crosswalk that traverses the museum building from east and to west, one can metaphorically yet viscerally experience the artist’s dematerialized artworld of “non-doing, non-making” light painting, where visitors’ breath and refractions of light are transformed through diffraction grating film that illuminates the space with a rainbow light spectrum.

New works presented at MUNTREF are also noteworthy, including new iterations of the artist’s representative bottari, which represent the movements and border crossings that envelop the world’s diversity, as well as To Breathe: the flags(2012), whereby local residents’ old clothes are wrapped in colorful fabrics of Obangsaek tones that are commonly found in everyday Argentine life and made into minimal bottari, thus connecting with and embracing multiple social contexts. Thread Routes (2010-2019) further conveys Kimsooja's perspective toward the links that connect global textile cultures, architecture, nature and handcrafts, allowing viewers to experience the visual connections between dyeing, embroidery, weaving, lacework, tile and pottery practices.

The artist's Deductive Object series installed at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes suggests a new aesthetics of the readymade by loading carts with bottari made out of laundry bags, supplemented by A Needle Woman [Paris, 2009] and lightbox photos of the bottari series. Installed in the mirror room of the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo is To Breathe, a large mirror installation on the floor is paired with sound from The Weaving Factory (2004); the Korean Cultural Center presents Deductive Object, an Obangsaek carpet work, and Mandala: Zone of Zero; and the historical Margarita Xirgu Theatre screens To Breathe - Invisible Mirror, Invisible Needle (2005). By encountering Kimsooja’s works at culturally significant locations throughout Buenos Aires, audiences are encouraged to reflect on issues of migration and transit in the age of globalization, thereby constructing a visual platform of harmony and solidarity. This project marks the artist’s first large-scale exhibition in Latin America since 1997, when she participated in the Bienal de São Paulo with Cities on the Move - 11163 miles Bottari Truck.

Based in New York, Paris and Seoul, Kimsooja (b.1957) is an international conceptual artist whose practice explores the totality of life and art, transcending distinctions of medium and form through works of painting, sewing, installation, performance and video as she investigates the conditions of art and life. In the 1980s, she began to experiment with alternative modes of expression while contemplating the two-dimensional structure of painting, leading to a series of sewing works that revealed a dualistic order of vertical and horizontal as the foundation of the world, thus expanding the object of her artistic inquiry from the material to the non-material. Kimsooja's resolute pursuit of the latter and adoption of “non-doing, non-making” as an aesthetic framework inform her longstanding engagement with various media and methodologies, driving her persistent questioning of art and humanity in pursuit of conceptual, contemplative aesthetics and humanism.

Realized on the occasion of the reopening of Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, To Breathe (2021) is a site-specific installation using diffraction grating film. First presented in 2006 as A Mirror Woman at the Palacio de Cristal of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, this installation series has been exhibited at venues worldwide, including the Korean Pavilion of the Venice Biennale (2013) and the Centre Pompidou-Metz (2015). At Leeum, the work is installed in the rotunda of architect Mario Botta's Museum 1 building. By introducing diffraction grating film within this circular chamber, which is characterized by a dome-shaped skylight and series of window frames enclosing its central cavity, the artist allows natural light to constantly transform in tune with the flow of time, changes in weather and movements of the sun throughout the four seasons. This filtered light envelops the interior spiral staircase and its surrounding walls in prismatic color before reaching ground level, where it casts a circular splash of rainbow hues, and breathes within the museum's main axis that connects its four floors of galleries. Another type of special reflective film responsive to soft light is installed in order to interact with the rhythm of the window frames placed alongside the spiral staircase, refracting rainbow spectrums that present viewers with variable tableaux unique to their movements. As light passes through the diffraction grating film, which is covered in nano-sized scratches that act as prisms, the interior space is filled with iridescent rays. Such refraction and breathing of the light awaken the audience’s sentiments and thoughts, allowing for both a metaphorical and embodied experience of the artist’s nonmaterial practice of “non-doing, non-making” with light painting.

Ever since the beginning of the world, light played a vital role in sustaining all forms of life, benevolently embracing the world and sharing its radiant bounty with all in need. To Breathe invokes this “light of nature,” as opposed to the museum’s artificial lighting, within the empty interior space and animates it as an organic and non-material spectrum of colorful light. The entirety of the spiral staircase, including the curved walls that delineate its circular footprint, constantly breathes through the descending rays of refracted light; the resulting visual effect recalls an observation by art historian Hans Sedlmayr, who said that the history of light is more essential than that of space, the dominant subject of art history. As Sedlmayr noted, the history of humankind cannot be isolated from the human relationship to light. In ancient times and the Middle Ages, light represented God and grace; with the arrival of the Renaissance, sublime and transcendental light served as positive and negative variables in the mathematical order of visual perspective; and by the time modernism had taken hold, light had become the Impressionists’ object of observation in order to manifest their impressions of ever-changing atmospheric conditions. Later on, artificial light served as a tool for László Moholy-Nagy of the Bauhaus to investigate the relationship between art and technology, while the American postwar minimalist Dan Flavin presented light as a phenomenon of accentuated materiality in resistance to Clement Greenberg’s imperative of extreme purity in paintings.

In contrast to the portrayal of light throughout Western art history, To Breathe allows viewers to appreciate the essential quality of light that has not changed since the beginning of time—its ephemeral yet eternal presence. As such, the work serves a contemplative function by awakening our sentiments and thoughts while converting the museum's rotunda into a sanctum. Light filtered through diffraction grating film yields an unpredictable spectrum whose appearance and disappearance creates an illusion of flowing through the air, swimming along with the currents of nature such as changes in season and weather and, as the title of the work alludes, swelling and subsiding in sync with the breath and gaze of the audience. Depending upon the intensity of nature’s suspiration, the light permeating the space may alternately appear vivid or merely flicker as a subtle, mysterious trace. This light, made visible as a function of nature's own breath, freely roams the cylindrical void while viewers perceive its iridescent rays coloring their bodies. Transposed into light in To Breathe, Kimsooja’s artistic language transcends notions of materiality and delivers the breath of nature unto all beings within its embrace, from the moment the very first life took its first breath until the present, in the same way that light has always unconditionally sheltered and touched countless beings.

Kimsooja (b. 1957), a conceptual artist based in New York, Paris and Seoul, participates in the 2nd Oku-Noto Triennale with a presentation of two site-specific installations that convey the immaterial totality of life and art. Located at the northern tip of Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture and surrounded by the sea on three sides, Suzu City was once a prosperous hub of maritime trade; in recent generations, however, it has become a dwindling town whose residents have largely resettled in other regions. By hosting the Oku-Noto Triennale, an art festival that unites local culture and contemporary art, the city seeks to revitalize its local communities and the region as a whole. To that end, Kimsooja’s site-specific works are installed in carefully chosen locations – a field located at the foot of a mountain on the Wanisaki coast and an old abandoned house – in order to form intimate associations with the city’s history and geography.

To Breathe: Mirror (2021) consists of a series of mirror panels installed along the oceanfront that reflect the horizon against a mountainous backdrop. Throughout Kimsooja’s oeuvre, mirrors function as a medium for prolonged questioning and investigation of the conditions of painting, as well as an extension of her “needle” concept in which she seeks to patch up divisions of our times and recover the innate value of human beings. Newly presented at the Oku-Noto Triennale, To Breathe: Mirror resonates and breathes with the natural landscape of the Wanisaki coast. The work integrates both water and earth, reflecting the Other in order to negate the sea’s capacity to demarcate territorial borders according to the modern concept of nations and propose a message of mending and embracing both physical and psychological ruptures.

To Breathe: Suzu (2021) introduces diffraction grating film to the windows of an abandoned house. Nano-sized scratches covering this thin film operate as prisms that filter natural light by refracting the sun's rays to produce small, fantastic rainbow spectrums. Unveiling a new light painting as a spatial intervention within a deserted house that has ceased to serve as a site of shelter and storage for local fishermen, this work constitutes a sincere endeavor to breathe regeneration and healing into the space. Viewers who experience the light painting on the house’s interior, or look through its windows to behold the iridescent trajectories of visible light outside, will feel a profound sense of connection by witnessing the water, forest and sky of this coastal landscape merge into a single artwork. In the spirit of supporting artistic collaboration even during a global pandemic, the 2ndOku-Noto Triennale runs from September 4 to October 24, 2021.

Kimsooja : Sowing into Painting
May 9 - November 1, 2020
Wanås Foundation - Wanås Konst, Sweden
Artistic Direction: Elisabeth Millqvist and Mattias Givell

The Wanås Foundation presents Sowing Into Painting, a solo exhibition with site-specific installations, film, sculpture and painting by Kimsooja. Wanås Konst is a unique cultural foundation in Southern Sweden, composed of a sculpture park and art galleries on the site of a medieval castle and an organic farm. Kimsooja’s exhibition will incorporate the diversity of the location with newly-conceived works investigating the conceptual relationship between painting, agriculture, and textiles.

"Kimsooja’s approach to stillness has made her an artist we have long wanted to work with as a part of our interest in the qualities of the site and highlighting nature (...). The exhibition takes place during the Covid-19 pandemic, a time of emergency and restrictions. With the body as our basis for being in the world, the exhibition gives room for inaction and meditation on life and art. Her orientation as an artist naturally establishes a dialogue with everything that is going on; the artworks give space for introspection and spirituality beyond religion. She creates a focus on the present that we need right now." - Elisabeth Millqvist


The title for the exhibition, Sowing into Painting, is also the title of Kimsooja’s new planting project. With this new work, Kimsooja expands her perspective on the (agri)cultural, conceptual, and material significance of painting and textiles. Taking advantage of something unique to the site that most art museums cannot offer—the possibility of farming the land, she uses the agricultural planting field surrounding the Wanås Foundation to experiment and cultivate a field of flax plants, a gesture referencing her decades-long exploration into painting as a conceptual art form.

Kimsooja plants two different local varieties of flax that are used to generate linseed oil and linen. Growing flax pulls us back within art history to the flax fibers that were used to manufacture textiles including canvas and linseed oil that is the classic binding agent in artists’ oil paints. By planting a field of flax plants, she metaphorically encapsulates the entire cycle of material production and considers the interplay of impermanence and perpetuity, and of life and art. These plants, which are grown and harvested in a period of several months, will transform into paintings that could last for centuries. Sown at the end of April, the flax fields will grow and change over the course of the exhibition from green sprouts to stalks with sky-blue flowers and seeds. As well as being a physical source of painting materials, the field becomes a fluid tableau, covering the ground in a pattern akin to weaving the earth.

Sowing into Painting is an expansion of the artist’s long fascination with agriculture and painting, evident in her series of Deductive Object works made in the early 90s by wrapping traditional farming tools from Korea and the US in fragments of used clothing, as well as her 1988 painting Agriculture, in which sewn and painted sections allude to abstraction and agrarian land plots simultaneously, and the word 'Agriculture' is written on the surface.

In the Art Gallery space, Kimsooja presents Meta-Painting, a new series of large scale conceptual paintings, through raw canvases of linen, both stretched and folded like bottari, the Korean cloth bundles used to wrap belongings and that have become a characteristic element of her oeuvre with references to migration, displacement, and urgency, as well as a formalistic form that is a three dimensional painting, a sculpture, and an object. Relating to the Sowing into Painting planting project in the nearby fields, these works show the product of the textile process, embodying the full life cycle from seed to flax plant, then transformed into linen canvas and art object. These minimalist paintings link the materiality and structure of the canvases to Kimsooja’s early work as a painter, as seen in sewn and painted works of the 80s and early 90s, to her continuously evolving later work as a conceptual artist using principles of non-doing and non-making.

In the centuries-old hay barn, Kimsooja presents To Breathe, a mirrored floor installation, reflecting and inverting the space. The high vaulted characteristic ceiling and its myriad of supporting beams are converted into a deep chasm, creating a disorienting effect as one walks across its surface. This installation comes out of an inquiry into mirrors as a conceptual investigation going back over twenty years in Kimsooja’s practice, since the 1999 Venice Biennale. On the other side of the building, which is more than 50 meters long, she has worked with stuffing fabrics in cracks and holes in the stone wall, tracing back to her Deductive Object made in conjunction with her residence at MoMA PS1 1993. Her works both occupy the room and leave it empty—the entire space becomes an experience, with this experience being her artwork. She allows the sensorial and conceptual dynamics latent in the architecture to come forward, inviting visitors to look far away and up close.

Referencing the century-long practice of the agricultural and textile production at Wanås Foundation, three of the six non-narrative chapters of Kimsooja’s first 16mm film series Thread Routes are shown in the Art Gallery. Started in 2010 and shot on five different continents, the films use textiles as a point of investigation into human life, culture, and the natural world.

In the nearby sculpture park, Kimsooja creates A Laundry Field, a new installation extending from her A Laundry Woman series. Kimsooja’s oeuvre is associated with traditional South Korean bedcovers, which she has used in several installations since 90’s. Here, she has instead chosen to work with old-fashioned white sheets that in Sweden are traditionally embroidered with a monogram or decorated with lace—a frame of life that are a part of creating a home and that display care and reflection. Harald Szeeman has described the sheets in Kimsooja’s oeuvre as a "theater for birth and death, our ephemeral condition". In the beech wood forest, the installation becomes a field of memories, of textiles imbued with the body, the couple, the family.

Wanas Foundation, Sweden

Traversées\Kimsooja
October 12, 2019 - January 19, 2020
Poitiers, France

Artistic Direction: Emma Lavigne and Emmanuelle de Montgazon


Kimsooja presents one of her most challenging and inspiring projects at a brand new artistic and cultural event - Traversées - lead by two artistic directors, Emma Lavigne and Emmannuelle de Montgazon. Placing Poitiers on the international art map, this is a new kind of project, a city-wide "carte blanche" offered to one artist.

As part of the event, Kimsooja has invited some fifteen fellow artists, to include Tadashi Kawamata, Lee Mingwei, Min Tanaka, Thomas Ferrand, Subodh Gupta, Jung Marie, Stephen Vitiello and Rirkrit Tiravanija, amongst others, to observe the city and to contribute their own perspectives.

 "To symbolically hand over the keys of Poitiers to Kimsooja is to accept that the city’s memories will be transformed into a space in which to imagine the future. But it is also to offer the artist the opportunity to re-frame her work, to imbed it in a new time and space, that of a city steeped in history" - E.L and E.dM

In the majestic Palace of the dukes of Aquitaine, a center of spirituality and contemporary culture, Kimsooja's Archive of Mind is conceived as a crossing of the City based on the very principles of co-existence and harmony that have inspired her work for over thirty years.

Inspired by Michel Foucault, who is native of Poitiers, and his definition of heterotopia, Kimsooja disperses space using light diffraction and mirrors in the different variations of her work To Breathe, transforming historical sites such as the Tour Maubergeon or the cloister of the Chapelle des Augustins into a sensory experience.

For an artist in a state of perpetual motion like Kimsooja, and living in a society increasingly sensitive to migratory patterns, Poitiers also takes on the role of a place of refuge, somewhere to unpack her Bottari, the Korean bundles that she uses to transport her miniature world – whether made from fabric, or in the form of a shipping container.

Co-produced by the City of Poitiers, Kimsooja presents, for the first time, her sixth chapter of Thread Routes, filmed in Morocco this year. After Peru, Europe, India, China, and North America, traveling is viewed as an experience of alterity and hospitality, echoing the “thoughts on borders and those living on the other side” that have led Kimsooja to “question the relationship between myself and the Other”.

"These 'traversées' will open our eyes to new paths and will write a new chapter in this rich story, one that will not only be recounted but lived and shared, turning local residents and visitors alike into wanderers, following the paths left by the artists, routes that fork and multiply into a disorienting infinity." E.L and E.dM

Emma Lavigne is a curator and art historian, the former director of the Centre Pompidou-Metz and now the President of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Emmanuelle de Montgazon is an independent international curator, born in Poitiers.

Traversées was initiated by Alain Claeys, mayor of the City of Poitiers, and Henri Loyrette, former director of the Louvre and Orsay museums.

INVITED ARTISTS

Sammy Baloji, Democratic Republic of the Congo/ Belgium / Myriam Boucher, Canada / Compagnie l’Homme Debout, France / Ensemble 0, France / Taylor Deupree, USA / Thomas Ferrand, France / Subodh Gupta, India / Jung Marie, South Korea / Lenio Kaklea, France / Greece / Tadashi Kawamata, Japan / France / Kimsooja, South Korea / USA / France / Lee Mingwei, Taiwan / France / Min Tanaka, Japan / Tomoko Sauvage, France / Japan / Achilleas Souras, United Kingdom / Greece / Stephen Vitiello, USA / Rirkrit Tiravanija, Germany / Thailand

SITES IN POITIERS

Palais des ducs d’Aquitaine / TAP - Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers / Maison de l’Architecture / Chapelle Saint-Louis / Atelier Canopé - Chapelle des Augustins / Eglise Notre-Dame-la-Grande / Halles du Marché Notre-Dame / Rue de la Cathédrale / Place de la Cathédrale / Baptistère Saint-Jean / Musée Sainte-Croix / Eglise Sainte-Radegonde / Confort Moderne

Kimsooja - Geometry of Breath
April 28 - June 30, 2017
Kewenig Gallery, Berlin
Brüderstraße 10, 10178 Berlin, Germany


Kewenig is pleased to open the exhibition "Geometry of Breath" by Kimsooja on the occasion of the Gallery Weekend. The exhibition was planned by Michael O. Kewenig together with Kimsooja. Due to his recent passing away Kimsooja dedicates her exhibition at the Kewenig Gallery Berlin in commemoration of the gallerist.

The conceptual artist Kimsooja (born in 1957 in Daegu, South Korea) lives in New York, Seoul and recently in Berlin. For more than thirty years, she has dedicated her oeuvre to the themes of migration, the human condition, and issues of the displaced self. In site-specific installations, performances, sculptures, videos and photographic works, she responds to the human condition with investigations into current cultural and political phenomena such as migration, cosmopolitanism and transculturalism in an increasingly globalized yet destructive world.

The exhibition "Geometry of Breath" contextualizes Kimsooja's last 10 years of work that focus on the corporeal aspect of her practice. The exhibit begins with the installation "To Breathe: Mandala" (2010), a readymade American jukebox, which amplifies the artist's breathing sound performance, "The Weaving Factory" (2004). The jukebox is presented on a painted wall, together with the breathing and humming sound, the speaker symbolizes and becomes the artist's body, mandala. Kimsooja leads us to a hypnotic and meditative outer space and timelessness.

The black "Bottari" (2017) line the historical stairway leading to the upper level of the exhibition. Kimsooja first tied together Bottari (Korean for "bundles") in 1992 during her time as artist- in-residence at MoMA PS1; since then, she has repeatedly taken them up anew as an artistic evolution and as a signature, each time in a site-specific manner in response to the personal and social condition around her. Traditionally in Korea, until well into the twentieth century, Bottaris were constructed by gathering a person's most important possessions into a wrapping cloth (in Kimsooja's work, used bedcovers) often when a native place had to be left behind. According to Kimsooja, "Homeland is not a topographically definable place but a state of consciousness and belonging." Wherever Kimsooja finds herself to be, her body is simultaneously her studio and her home. In these new body of works, the borders between her body – as the space where new ideas arise – and the works themselves become increasingly blurred.

In the vestibule of the upper floor of the exhibition Kimsooja exhibits a selection of her recent print series "Topology of Time" (2016), which are produced from a collection of the artist's hair since the early 90s. The hair functions in the pictorial space simultaneously as a drawing and an instrument for measuring time. "Geometry of Body" (2013-2016) are abstracted from fingerprints taken for security clearance at the American-Mexican border crossing Mariposa Land Port of Entry. In the framework of the U.S. GSA Art in Architecture Program in 2013, Kimsooja installed large-format outdoor LED screen video portraits of border residents of Mexican descent living in the US – directly above the high-security zone of the controversial borderline – to offer a gesture of greeting to migrants who passed through the border daily. The abstracted fingerprints, once symbols of identity, now reference the lines of a topographic map.

The adjacent room contains "A Laundry Woman," (2017) where the artist's clothing, which after many years of wear show traces of her body, are installed on a clothesline. Next, a visitor reaches the print and video work "An Album: Havana" (2007), a panning shot in which bodies of anonymous passersby are blurred and disappear into the wind as the focus softens.

In the third room on the upper floor, one encounters the sculpture "Deductive Object" (2016), Kimsooja's first plaster-cast of the artist's arms and hands exhibited on an antique wooden table. The casting captures the artist's hands as her index fingers meet her thumb constructing a void within the hand. This work is installed alongside "One Breath" (2006 / 2016), a digital embroidery of the sound waves of a single breath from the artist's "The Weaving Factory" (2006) sound performance, as well as "Geometry of Body" (2006 – 2015), a yoga mat that the artist had used for nine years until it held the impression of her body as a painting. The three works correspond to the clay spheres – relics, "Deductive Object" (2016), which reference the major work "Archive of Mind" (2016) at Kimsooja's solo exhibition at the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2016. In what is the artist's first interactive installation, over the course of the exhibition visitors are invited to sit around a 19-meter-long elliptical table and shape balls of fresh clay between the palms of their hands, accompanied by a sound performance "Unfolding Sphere" of rolling clay spheres and gurgling sounds by the artist.

In the final room of the exhibition, the video work "An Album: Hudson Guild" (2009), inquires into the changes and subjective conditions of spatial and temporal perception in old age. In the video recordings of the senior citizens from the Hudson Guild center in the Chelsea district of New York, the artist focuses on the phenomena of memory loss and detachment from reality, while remembering her deceased father, who suffered a stroke. The portrayed individuals are immigrants from Latin America, Europe and Asia, who are increasingly being forced out of Chelsea due to rising rents. In the photograph produced on the occasion of the exhibition and titled "An Album: Hudson Guild" (2009/2017), they gather into a group portrait of America – as a country of immigrants.

In the warehouse of the gallery in the district of Moabit, Kewenig is installing Kimsooja's video-performance "Bottari Truck – Migrateurs" (2007), in which the artist was conveyed through the streets of Paris as a journey which commemorated the 'Sans Papier' Movement at Eglise Saint Bernard where immigrants without papers protected themselves in the early 90s. Upon the loading area of the warehouse, the pick-up truck complete with her paradigmatic Bottaris is installed. The work was conceived at the Artist-in- Residence Program at the MAC/VAL (Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne) in an outlying district of Paris, where immigrants from Asia, North Africa and Southern Europe live.

Kimsooja's works have been displayed in numerous solo exhibitions at international museums including MoMA PS1, New York (2001); Crystal Palace, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2006); Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain St. Étienne (2012); Pérez Art Museum Miami (2012); Vancouver Art Gallery (2013); Guggenheim Bilbao (2015); Centre Pompidou-Metz (2015); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (2010, 2016/17) and CAC Málaga (2016). In 2013, Kimsooja represented the Korean Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennial. Furthermore, her works have been exhibited at the 5th Istanbul Biennale (1997), São Paulo (1998) and Venice (1999, 2001, 2005, 2007). She was recently honored with the Ho-Am Prize (2015) and the Asia Society Arts Award in Hong Kong (2017).

Kewenig Gallery, Berlin

Intuition
May 13 - November 26, 2017
Palazzo Fortuny
Palazzoa Fortuny, San Marco 3958-San Beneto, Venice, Italy

To coincide with the 2017 Venice Art Biennale, the Axel & May Vervoordt Foundation and the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia will present their sixth, and final, exhibition: Intuition.  Curated by Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti, Director of the Palazzo Fortuny, and co-curated by Dario Dalla Lana, Davide Daninos and Anne-Sophie Dusselier, the exhibition will explore how intuition has, in some form, shaped art across geographies, cultures and generations. It will bring together historic, modern and contemporary works related to the concept of intuition, dreams, telepathy, paranormal fantasy, meditation, creative power, hypnosis and inspiration.

Intuition will be the last in a highly acclaimed series at the Palazzo Fortuny co-curated by Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti, which include Artempo (2007), In-finitum (2009), TRA (2011), Tàpies. Lo Sguardo dell’artista (2013) and most recently, Proportio (2015).

Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without proof, evidence, or conscious reasoning: a feeling that guides a person to act in a certain way without fully understanding why.

Some of the earliest works on display in the exhibition will reveal the role of intuition in encouraging artists to connect the two worlds, first attempts by man to create an immediate link between the sky and the earth: from the erection of totems to shamanism and mystical ecstasy; and from religious iconography describing illuminations (Annunciation, Visitation, Pentecost…), to classical works capturing the divine revelation of dreams.

Modern works by Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hilma af Klint and more will highlight the intuitive experience and feeling that drives the creative process, and led to the rise of abstract art. The importance of the spatial and temporal research undertaken by the Gutai, Cobra, Zero, Spazialismo and Fluxus groups will be illustrated with works by Kazuo Shiraga, Pierre Alechinsky, Günther Uecker, Lucio Fontana, Mario Deluigi and Joseph Beuys.

The Surrealists interest in the unconscious will also be an important focus of the exhibition. Their fascination with dreams, automatic writing and drawing, collective creations and the state of alteration of the ego will be represented with the ‘dessins communiqués’ and ‘cadavres exquis’ of André Breton, André Masson, Paul Eluard, Remedios Varo, Victor Brauner amongst others, along with the experiments of camera-less photography of Raoul Ubac and Man Ray, and the works on paper by Henry Michaux, Oscar Dominguez and Joan Miró.

This legacy will be reflected in a number of works by contemporary artists such as Robert Morris, William Anastasi, Isa Genzken, Renato Leotta and Susan Morris who, since the 1960s, have revived, developed and modernised the Surrealists’ interest with automatism, leading to new formal and technical results. Other contemporary works by artists including Marina Abramović, Chung Chang-Sup, Ann Veronica Janssens and Anish Kapoor, are inspired by striking subjective experiences or states of mind, and the artists’ concern and preoccupation with the viewer.

During the opening days visitors will be invited to explore and experience the paranormal fantasy of artists through four performances related to dreams, telepathy, and hypnosis – of the mind and body –by young artists Marcos Lutyens, Yasmine Hugonnet, Angel Vergara and Matteo Nasini.

Intuition aims to provoke questions about the origins of creation, and is intended to be viewed as a ‘work in progress’, with leading contemporary artists creating a dialogue with the historic works and with the unique character of Mariano and Henriette Fortuny’s former home. Kimsooja, Alberto Garutti, Kurt Ralske, Bruna Esposito and Nicola Martini will all create site-specific installations as part of the exhibition – a direct, and intuitive, response to the spaces of Palazzo Fortuny.

Palazzo Fortuny

Socle Du Monde Biennale 2017
April 21 - August 27, 2017
HEART - Herning Museum ofContemporary Art
Birk Centerpark 8, 7400 Herning,Denmark

The Socle du Monde Biennale was founded in 2002, making it the oldest Danish biennale focusing on contemporary art. It is named after Piero Manzoni’s groundbreaking sculpture Socle du Monde, one of the main masterpieces in the HEART collection.

Socle du Monde 2017 presents a wide range of works. Paintings, installation art, sculptures and performances – from colourless paintings, shit in a can and live chickens to art exchanges and a dancing light robot.

The biennale celebrates Piero Manzoni by turning its gaze partly towards the past, partly to the future as it presents a carefully chosen selection of exciting artists. It also presents a wide range of works that have never before been shown in Scandinavia.

The 2017 Socle du Monde Biennale  – to challenge the Earth, the Moon, the Sun & the Stars  is the 7th instalment of the biennale.

The 2017 Socle Du Monde Biennale takes place at HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning Højskole, Carl-Henning Pedersen & Else Alfelt’s Museum, The Geometric Gardens and HEART’s Sculpture Park.

The Socle du Monde Biennale will be presenting a number of internationally renowned curators headed by Mattijs Visser, founding director ZERO foundation, with curators Olivier Varenne, Jean-Hubert Martin, Daniel Birnbaum and Maria Finders . Assisting the team are Holger Reenberg, director at HEART and founding Director of The Socle du Monde Biennale , the director at Carl-Henning Pedersen & Else Alfelts Museum, Lotte Korshøj and Chief curator at HEART Michael Bank Christoffersen. Each of the 5 curators will create their individual chapter, based on a work by Manzoni, while the ‘outdoor’ chapters with permanent installations will be curated by the complete team.

Socle Du Monde Biennale

Person in the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie
February 25 - May 22, 2017
The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia
2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19130, United States

Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie features work by more than 50 international artists who have taken to the street to play detective, make fantastic maps, scavenge and shop for new materials, launch guerrilla campaigns, and make provocative spectacles of themselves to speak to issues as diverse as commodity fetishism, gentrification, gender politics, globalization, racism, and homelessness. The exhibition is on view February 25 through May 22, 2017, and features works, new performances, and historical pieces by Marina Abramović, Vito Acconci, Eleanor Antin, Constant, David Hammons, and Zhang Huan, among many others.

While much of the exhibition will be presented in the Barnes Foundation's Roberts Gallery, Person of the Crowd will also reach into the city of Philadelphia. A series of performances—by artists including Sanford Biggers, Tania Bruguera, Ayana Evans, Zachary Fabri, and Wilmer Wilson IV—will take place on the streets of Philadelphia, and billboard and street poster projects will activate the city throughout the exhibition run.

The Barnes has also commissioned New York-based artist Man Bartlett to create a project site and digital artwork exploring themes related to the exhibition and the concept of "cyberflânerie." Bartlett will act as a flâneur by documenting the street performances taking place throughout the run of the exhibition and inviting the general public to step into the position of the flâneur and share their perceptions of everyday urban life via social media using the hashtag #personofthecrowd. He will also work with teens in the Philadelphia region to develop videos documenting their own experiences as flâneurs inspired by their engagement in the public spaces of the city.

Bartlett will weave together this rich digital content—his documentation of the performances, the public's social media posts as interpreted by a custom-built machine learning application, and Philadelphia students' videos—to create the final piece which will live on a project site and will be projected inside the Barnes Foundation's Annenberg Court.

Artists: Marina Abramović, Vito Acconci, Franz Ackermann, Francis Alÿs, Eleanor Antin, Arman, Man Bartlett, Sanford Biggers, Slater Bradley, Stanley Brouwn, Tania Bruguera, Ingrid Calame, Sophie Calle, Papo Colo, Constant, Guy Debord, Allan Espiritu, Ayana Evans, Daphne Fitzpatrick, Zachary Fabri, Guerrilla Girls, Kendell Geers, Adler Guerrier, David Hammons, Keith Haring, Hi Red Center, Jenny Holzer, Tehching Hsieh, Zhang Huan, Allan Kaprow, Kimsooja, Moshekwa Langa, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Virgil Marti, Lee Mingwei, Annette Messager, Ivan Cardoso / Hélio Oiticica, Jefferson Pinder, Adrian Piper, William Pope.L, Robert Rauschenberg, Martha Rosler, Christy Rupp, Ed Ruscha, Carolee Schneemann, Dread Scott, Jean Shin, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Gillian Wearing, Wilmer Wilson IV, Brett Day Windham, David Wojnarowicz

The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia 

Tous, des sang-mêlés
April 22 - September 3, 2017
MAC/VAL Musée d'art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne
Place de la Libération, 94400 Vitry-sur-Seine, France

The Val-de-Marne Contemporary Art Museum is happy to present a group show entitled “Tous, des sang-mêlés” (“All, mixed-bloods”) around the universal and burning issue of cultural identity. This original proposal echoes previous curatorial projects conducted by the MAC VAL over the last few years.

In tune with the current world affairs, this exhibition explores the notion of cultural identity through various artistic visions and experiences: what is our common denominator? How do we build a shared culture in spite of more and more diverse/opposite origins? Those are some of the current global issues. Under the co-patronage of French historian Lucien Febvre and his book We are all mixed-bloods: a manual on the history of the French civilization (1950), and that of Stuart Hall, founding father of Cultural Studies, this exhibition highlights the fictional dimension of the concept of cultural identity. Our curators have build an exhibition around different proposals that raise questions and shed light on what relates and sets us apart, on transfer of knowledge and future, on power and resistance, on individuals and communities…

Through the voice of about sixty international artists and around one hundred artworks, the exhibition investigates the topics of cultural, national and sexual identities. They all revolve around the notion of being, yet some are obvious, others bring up –often passionate, always political- debates, and others call up memories of the past, sensitivity, experiences, and existence itself, from survival instinct to the notion of living together.

The works gathered in this exhibition tackle these topics from a real-life standpoint in a spirit of exchange and dialogue. If cultural identity is a fiction, artists have different ways to interpret, investigate and question it…while taking distance with the –all too reductive- identity perspective.

How do we shape ourselves in regard to our tongue, territory, family, History, story, and stereotypes?

The exhibition proposes several elements to establish a common ground on which alterities could develop together and in regard to one another.

Through the story, sensitivity, words and commitment of artists from all horizons, ages and nationalities, each visitor can grow his own understanding of the notion of “Identity”. Set up in the very heart of the exhibition, “De quoi j’me mêle?” offers a space of encounters, debates, reading and relaxation all throughout the duration of the show. Its goal is to take time to think together or individually about the issues raised by the exhibition and the reality of today’s world. Singular voices will speak up to share opinions as well as personal and collective experiences.

These encounters organized by everyone who collaborated in the organization of the event, are free of charge and open to all audience on Sunday, 30 April, 7 May, 14 May, 21 May, 28 May, 4 June, 11 June, 25 June, 9 July, 27 August and 3 September at 4pm.

MAC/VAL Musée d'art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne

Thread Lines
April 29 - August 6, 2017
KMAC Museum, Kentucy
715 West Main Street, Louisville, Kentucy 40202, United States

Curated by Joanna Kleinberg Romanow
Organized by The Drawing Center, New York

This group exhibition features fifteen artists who engage in sewing, knitting, and weaving to create a wide-range of works that activate the expressive and conceptual potential of line and illuminate affinities between the mediums of textile and drawing. Multi-generational in scope, Thread Lines brings together those pioneers who—challenging entrenched modernist hierarchies—first unraveled the distinction between textile and art with a new wave of contemporary practitioners who have inherited and expanded upon their groundbreaking gestures. 

KMAC Museum

The 2nd Changjiang International Photography and Video Biennale
April 28 - July 28, 2017
Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art
Chongqing nanbing Yangtze River Art Plaza, China

It has been 2 years since the 1st Session of Changjiang International Photography &Video Biennale achieved success. And the 2nd Session is coming now! This Biennale, sponsored by Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, will be held in April 2017 for 3 months.

In the 2nd Session, we invite Bisi Silva (Nigeria), Cui Cancan and Wang Qingsong in China as curators. These three curators, with varied academic background, from different countries and regions, will bring us a great exhibition. Bisi Silva is the founder and art director of CCA who has devoted to the study and the plan of international contemporary art and feminine art. Moreover, she has been one of the curators for many significant Biennales. Cui Cancan, Chinese independent curator, is active in Chinese contemporary art and the joint area connected art and social movement, who stands out and gets much attention for planning experimental exhibitions and critical projects. Wang Qingsong, the Chinese artist that focus on the field of contemporary photography, has participated in many important international Biennales and also is the founder and curator-in-chief of the 1st Session of Changjiang International Biennale of Video Art and Photography. The 2ed Session of Biennale will continue to put the video art and photography as the main objective, which is just as the 1st session, and use space and halls in a broader way to explore a brand-new format for showcase. All the space and halls in Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art will get artists, of different ages, from varied region all over the world together, whose works will form new relationship for narration and show the impact and value of video art and photography on every systems.

After a year’s discussion, the objective of this Biennale has settled as “Every Skyscraper is Built from the Ground”, which describes the process of art development during the history and emphasizes its base. The objective also metaphorizes that everything develops from nothing, symbolizes that image art are ubiquitous and influenced all trades and professions, and manifests the Biennale‘s ambition to enter into the public full-fledged.

This Biennale includes two parts: one is Theme Exhibition, the other is Special Project. Five Units makes up the Theme Exhibition, namely, “Video Art and Film Art”, “Images and Visual Communication”, “Images and books, classic magazines, network”, “Images and Local time, Self-organization, Experimental space”, “Images and Contemporary Art”. These five units focus on the wonderful relationship between image art and different systems. Image art not only activates the development and boundaries of various social fields, but also constantly changes itself in this process, adding new attributes. The units, the literature and the works, intertwining and complementing each other, form rich and complex cultural clues together.

This Biennale, just as the one in last year, sets Video Art and Photography Award and other relative awards, judged by a jury comprised 5 reviewers and curators. During the 90 days, roundtable meetings and workshops will be held with artists in multi-fields, through cruising , broadcasting and recreation, which emphasizes the objective of “Every Skyscraper is Built from the Ground” that is to bring the exhibition, transmission and application of art to the social front, and strengthen the relationship between Biennale and different regional art practices.

"Rip It Up” happens in west China, which converged as a flood of video art and photography in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art

The Urge to Create Vision
May 27 - September 17, 2017
Centrum Rzezby Polskiej
Topolowa 1, 26-505 Oronsko, Poland

International Exhibition carried out in cooperation with the Foundation Signum includes works by renowned artists of historical avant-garde and contemporary artists. In Orońsko we see, among others, the work of artists such as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Jesus Rafael Soto, Francisco and Stefan Themersonowie Wojciech Fangor, Kimsooja, Mikołaj Grospierre. The exhibition will be the main highlight of the summer season 2017

Curator: Grzegorz Musiał

Coordinator: Leszek Golec

Participants: Elias Crespin, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Wojciech Fangor, Paweł Grobelny, Mikołaj Grospierre, Bethan Huws, Kimsooja, Lin Yi, Michał Martychowiec, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Jesus Rafael Soto, Francisco and Stefan Themerson Ludwig Wilding, Chi Tsung Wu

Cetrum Rzezby Polskiej, Oronsko, Poland

April 28 - July 29, 2017
Opening April 28, 2017 6 to 9 p.m.
Special opening times at all locations: April 28-30, 2017 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Further exhibtion venue during Gallery Weekend Berlin

Kimsooja >>Bottari Truck - Migrateurs<<
at Kewenig warehouse, Wilhelmshavener Str. 7, 10551 Berlin-Moabit

Bottari Truck - Migrateurs, 2007

D-10178 Berlin Brüderstr. 10 t +49.30.3988 038-0 gallery@kewenig.com

Kimsooja's feature on Bloomberg's Brilliant Ideas is now available online

Kimsooja will be featured on Bloomberg's Brilliant Ideas, which is scheduled to premiere on Friday January 13, 2017 in the U.S. at 9pm EST, in Europe at 7:30pm GMT, and in Asia at 6:00 pm UTC + 8

Current Exhibitions: 

Kimsooja - Archive of Mind is on view at MMCA, Seoul
July 27, 2016 - February 5, 2016

Dancing with Myself: Self-portrait and Self-invention Wroks from the Pinault Collection at Museum Folkwang, Essen
October 7, 2016 - January 15, 2017

Uncertain States - Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
October 15, 2016 - January 15, 2017

Urgent Conversations: Athens-Antwerp, National Museum of Contemporary Art - EMST, Athens
October 31 - 2016 - January 29, 2017

Peace & Love to the World

Kimsooja will be featured on Bloomberg's Brilliant Ideas, which is scheduled to premiere on Friday January 13, 2017 in the U.S. at 9pm EST, in Europe at 7:30pm UTC, and in Asia at 6:00 pm UTC + 8

Current Exhibitions: 

Kimsooja - Archive of Mind is on view at MMCA, Seoul
July 27, 2016 - February 5, 2016

Kimsooja, To Breathe - Zone of Zero at CAC Magala
October 7, 2016 - January 8, 2017

Enacting Stillness at The 8th Floor Gallery, New York
September 21, 2016 - January 13, 2017

Dancing with Myself: Self-portrait and Self-invention Wroks from the Pinault Collection at Museum Folkwang, Essen
October 7, 2016 - January 15, 2017

Uncertain States - Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
October 15, 2016 - January 15, 2017

Urgent Conversations: Athens-Antwerp, National Museum of Contemporary Art - EMST, Athens
October 31 - 2016 - January 29, 2017
 

Archive of Mind, 2016, participatory site specific installation consisting of clay balls, 19 m elliptical wooden table, and sound performance Unfolding Sphere, 2016, Installation at Kimsooja – Archive of Mind at MMCA, Seoul, Courtesy of MMCA and Hyundai Motor Co. and Kimsooja Studio

MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2016: Kimsooja
Archive of Mind
July 27, 2016 - February 5, 2017
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
30 Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Sogyeok-dong, Seoul 03062, Korea


MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2016: Kimsooja - Archive of Mind is being held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (Seoul). Selected by MMCA to be featured as the third artist for MMCA Hyundai Motor Series, Kimsooja brings together a conceptual, existential, aesthetic, and structural investigation of performance through immobility that inverts the notion of the artist as the predominant actor. 

MMCA Hyundai Motor Series is long-term annual project inaugurated in 2014, sponsored by Hyundai Motors Company to support solo exhibitions of distinguished Korean artists. By providing a pivotal opportunity of commissioning new large-scale works to the artists with distinctive practices, the series instills fresh invigorating possibilities into the field of Korean contemporary art.  

Kimsooja’s work deals with universal issues of restoration and regeneration, transcending beyond the regional boundaries to embracing the contemporary age through relationships between self and others. Kimsooja is praised for her steady practice which encompasses elements of Korean tradition and modernity, and particularity and universality.

This exhibition presents for the first time to the public a major performative installation Archive of Mind, a new sculpture installation Deductive Object, the new and fifth chapter of Kimsooja’s ongoing film series "Thread Routes," and a series of recent works that mark an evolution in the artist’s practice. MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2016: Kimsooja - Archive of Mind presents works which have never been shown before, including her large-scale installation work constructed on-site, which transforms with the audience participation throughout the exhibition period, and an outdoor installation work in the courtyard. We hope this exhibition offers the audience the opportunity to delve into the ideas of duality and balance which have fascinated the artist since her early works until today.

Kimsooja, To Breathe - Zone of Zero
October 7, 2016 - January 8, 2017
CAC Malaga
Calle Alemania, S/N, 29001 Málaga, Spain

The title of the exhibition To Breathe – Zone of Zero is an amalgam of the two works that comprise it. The installation Lotus: Zone of Zero (2016) has turned the exhibition space at the CAC Málaga into a place of contemplation and meditation. A total of 708 lotus lanterns cover the ceiling of the room, but instead of the circular mandala design used in previous presentations of this work, here they are arranged in a rectangular pattern as a minimalist tableau. Gregorian, Islamic and Tibetan chants flood the hall and wash over spectators, inviting them to turn their thoughts inwards. Although this project was conceived in 2003 in response to the Iraq War, today it is still a relevant proposal, providing a safe haven where people of different cultures and religions can come together. That zone is a place of respect, reflection, dialogue and harmony—a place of concord. This installation explores the notion of unity and totality, according to which mind and body are spiritually joined.

The artist uses the exhibition space of the CAC Málaga as a sanctuary, an isolated refuge in which to meditate or dream. She makes the building’s architectural structure one with her work. The artist invites us to experiment with our minds and activate our senses, imagination and sensory perceptions; her work appeals to body and mind in equal measure, composing a visual poem. Kimsooja achieves the maximum effect with a minimum of elements.

This is apparent in her video To Breathe – The Flags (2012), in which 246 national flags are slowly superimposed, one by one, in alphabetical order, without hierarchy or political bias, putting all nations on the same level: a visual experience in which differences and conflicts between nations can fuse and blend together as one. The piece was originally created for the 2012 London Olympics to reflect the unifying spirit of the games, although that first version only included the flags of participating countries. The flags added later represent nations which are not accepted or officially recognised by the authorities. Overlapping the flags is a gesture of understanding, of fraternity among equals, of respect for differences.

The works of Kimsooja, the most influential Korean conceptual artist active today, show a commitment to engage with the audience and inspire solidarity and respect for others by appealing to the sense of humanity we all possess.

Kimsooja was born in Daegu, the third largest city in Korea, famous for its textile industry. As the daughter of an army officer, she lived in the demilitarised zone in South Korea, and her childhood was spent constantly moving with her family from city to city. The artist is keenly aware of the problematic issues of borders, otherness (the relationship between self and the other), gender inequality and nomadism. Today Kimsooja is still a nomad, constantly travelling to share her vision of the world.

During the exhibition, visitors will also be able to admire two bottaris from the collection of Carmen Riera in the show Passion II (Kimsooja, Installation of 2 Bottaris, 2005), now on display at the CAC Málaga. These bottaris are made of used fabrics, and for Kimsooja they contain the memories, desires, experiences and spirits of their former owners.

CAC Malaga

Kimsooja, Weaving the World
November 18, 2016 - December 18, 2016
CC Strombeek
Gemeenteplein, 1853, Belgium

From November 18 to December 18, 2016, Museum Culture Strombeek / Ghent Kimsooja, Weaving the World , a solo exhibition of the Korean artist Kimsooja. This artist living in New York is considered as one of the leading Korean artists of her generation. 

Her concept for CC Strombeek, conceived as an extension of the presentation and between 2010 and 2016 came about film series Thread Routes , is extremely fragile and feminine, and appeals to a mix of (handmade) textiles, architecture and elusive cosmos.

The exhibition Kimsooja, Weaving the World is an 'experience' in which textile is the reason for a human philosophical and colorful outlook on life.

In addition to the presentation in CC Strombeek shows Kimsooja at the Korean Cultural Center 's recent work Bottari - to the victims of violence Brussels . It is a variant of the brightly colored and richly decorated clothes bundles that she presented under that name in different contexts and constellations since 1992. Kimsooja made this 'monument' in memory of the victims of the attacks in Brussels on March 22 2016, using clothes from anonymous people in Brussels as well as the artist's bedsheet.

CC Strombeek

Enacting Stillness
September 21, 2016 - January 13, 2017
The 8th Floor
17 West 17th Street, New York, NY, United States


Enacting Stillness is an exhibition that considers the political potential of slowing down and stopping as forms of resistance, protest, and refusal. An international group of artists in the exhibition engage in practices that challenge and upend our expectations for the continuity of performative compositions, lines of movement, and thought. Working with the disciplines of choreography, theater, moving image, sculpture and performance, the exhibition presents a multivalent reflection on political histories from the Americas to Europe and Asia, with projects that employ a range of gestures and time-based practices to question what unexpected ruptures like meditation, contemplation, rest, and the reversing of movement and time might mean to both the artist and the viewer. The exhibition will be on view September 21, 2016 to January 13, 2017 at The 8th Floor, the exhibition and programming space for The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, located at 17 West 17th Street, New York City.

Enacting Stillness features artists John Ahearn, Rehan Ansari, Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Brendan Fernandes, Alicia Grullón, Yoko Inoue, Joan Jonas, Claudia Joskowicz, Kirsten Justesen, Kimsooja, Carlos Martiel, Bruce Nauman, Clifford Owens, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Emily Roysdon, and Roman Štětina. Together, the artists in this exhibition reveal the parallel connections between art and political engagement, between stillness and activation. Each of the artists works with an economy of means to test the limits of performance – for the performer, the viewer, and the participant – provoking us to question how our own positions, whether still or in motion, connect to larger social and political concerns.

The 8th Floor

Minus Ego, Renouncing - Disappearing - Sharing
October 7 - December 22, 2016
Goethe Institut Barcelona
Roger de Flor 224, Barcelona


In the era of the narcissist selfie it is both urgent and necessary to reflect on the nature of Ego, on how it influences and affects our existence. As stated by Alejandro Jodorowski: “The ego is a cage with no bird that believes it’s a bird with no cage”. Surface and appearance become the system and rules that drive our actions. Egotism permeates political and social life and egos grow as strong, unsustainable and destructive entities that benefit neither the individual nor the collective. 

Ideologies, propaganda, seductive corporate messages, hyper-productivity and the astute architecture of capitalism, compose the elements of that cage which oppresses the essence and enhances the ego. 

Kaja Silverman, a psychoanalytic theorist who has studied the links between the ego, the gaze, the look and image, considers Lacan and Freud’s well-known perspective on the ego: “Lacan proposes that the ego comes into existence the moment when the infant subject first apprehends the image of its body within a reflective surface, and is itself a mental refraction of that image. Thus, the ego is the representation of a corporal representation”. She also underlines: “In The Ego and the Id, Freud maintains that the ego is ‘first and foremost, a bodily ego; it is not merely a surface entity, but is itself the projection of a surface’”. 

How can we free ourselves from the ego’s cage? How can we move from optical consciousness, the threshold of the visible, the material surface towards the imperceptible self, the essence, mind consciousness? What’s behind our mirror-image? 

Minus Ego is an exhibition addressing universal and timeless questions of “ego”, focusing on the challenging aspects of its reduction as well as on a search for the contemplative essence. 

What do we refer to when talking about “ego reduction”? Is it about renouncing? Is it about disappearing? Perhaps, sharing? Is it related to silence? Is it about creating different relationships with people, ideas and contexts? 

The complexity and diversity of the ego is a central issue in the life of every human and has been analysed from the perspective of philosophy, psychology, ethics, mysticism, religion, politics and culture in different times and spaces. The exploration of ego goes hand in hand with the evolution of humankind and thinking: from the psychic apparatus [id, ego and superego] defined by Sigmund Freud; or the radical individual autonomy proclaimed by Max Stirner; to the multiple senses of annihilation, fading, fusion, dissolution or illusion that we could find in different spiritual beliefs, rituals and practices. 

The transient passage of life, the concept of impermanence, the Buddhist Anicca, the Fanaa vision in Sufism, the Hindu concept of Samadhi, the Pali term Nekkhamma, the active nihilism of Nietzsche’s philosophy, Heidegger’s Mitsein or Vattimo’s ‘weak thought’, all deal – in one way or another – with the idea of renouncing and disappearing. 

These main notions – renouncing, disappearing and sharing – compose the reflections on ‘Minus Ego’, dig into the idea of essence and raise different questions and thoughts concerning the structure, definition, position and composition of ego. 

The ‘Minus Ego’ project explores both the convergences and divergences of ego, its dependency and independency, its eternity and impermanence. Reflecting on this from within artistic contexts — themselves often filled with egotism — will provide an opportunity to explore the spirit and nature of ‘I’, ‘Self’, ‘Ego’ from different perspectives and their relationships with the ‘We’, the ‘Other’ and different ‘systems and superstructures’. 

The different works forming the exhibition reveal the many possible interpretations of the ‘Minus Ego’ concept. Envisioned as a research and exhibition project, ‘Minus Ego’ will be developed through several steps in different places and times, changing and transforming itself just as egos and identities do. 

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS 
Marko Schiefelbein (Berlin preview), and in Barcelona: Thilo Droste, Christoph Schwarz, Jordi Tolosa, Toni Serra, Abu Ali,  Jakob & Manila Bartnik, Kimsooja, Susanne Bosch, Michael Wesely, and Antoni Tàpies.  

Curated by: Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio
Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio holds an International PhD in “Art History, Theory and Criticism” from the University of Barcelona. He is a faculty member and core advisor at Transart Institute (NY-Berlin) and has worked as a Postdoctoral Visiting Researcher at United Nations University - Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility (UNU-GCM). He is invited Professor of the Cultural Management Programme of the University of Barcelona.

His current lines of research involve the subjects of intercultural processes, globalization, participation and mobility in contemporary art and cultural policies; the concepts of utopia, journey, mysticism and nomadism; the interactions between artistic, educational, media and cultural practices in the Mediterranean and the cultural cooperation between Asia and Europe.

He has participated in several international conferences and developed projects and research residencies in Europe, Asia, USA and the Middle East. As an art critic, editor and independent curator he collaborates with international organizations and institutions and writes extensively for several magazines and journals. He is Editorial contributor at Culture360 – Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), Managing Editor at ELSE – Transart Institute, and co-founder of the Platform for Contemporary Art and Thought, InterArtive.


Goethe Institut Barcelona

Dancing with Myself: Self-portrait and Self-invention Works from the Pinault Collection
October 7, 2016 - January 15, 2017
Museum Folkwang
Museumsplatz 1, 45128 Essen, Germany


From October 7, 2016, to January 15, 2017, the large exhibition hall in the Museum Folkwang will be given over to an artistic examination of the self. The thread that links the pieces together is the multifaceted presence of the artists in their own work. It will be the first time that such a substantial number of the outstanding group of works acquired by Francois Pinault is to be put on display in Germany. Dancing with Myself is a playful, poetic, poltical, and wild dance through contemporary art moving from the 1960s up to our own time.

In Dancing with Myself the artists themselves play a major part in the show. They are both actors and raw material in their own work—their bodies, their biographies, their social and sexual identities, their humor, their melancholia. Moving beyond the classical self-portrait, the exhibition plays on the themes of artistic temperament and attitude.

At the same time Dancing with Myself is also a vibrant media crossover. Large-format paintings come face to face with huge video installations; bodies turned into photographs encounter sculptural fragments. The artists have inscribed themselves in diverse ways—in the photographic apparatus, the video or film camera, the screen, the space, the conceptual gesture. The body becomes a natural Dadaist tool with childlike qualities; the performative is made into the primary form of representation. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, images turn into productive (distorting) mirrors for bodies and identities.

Dancing with Myself is also a wild ride through the art history of the last fifty years. What still had truth and validity in the 1970s other than the experience of one’s own body? The postmodern irony and challenge of self-images and stereotypes of the time now come into contact with the attitudes of young artists who once again have a fixed social and political position, and use their own biographies and bodies to take a stand among the fault lines of a globalized and unequal world.

Dancing with Myself is a collaboration between the Museum Folkwang and the Pinault Collection, supported by the program Jeunes Commissaires of the Bureau des arts plastiques et de l’architecture of the Institut français.

Artists: 
Adel Abdessemed, Alighiero Boetti, Claude Cahun, Maurizio Cattelan, John Coplans, Urs Fischer, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Lee Friedlander, Gilbert & George, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Félix González-Torres, Rodney Graham, David Hammons, Roni Horn, Kimsooja, Martin Kippenberger, Kurt Kranz, Urs Lüthi, Steve McQueen, Boris Mikhaïlov, Bruce Nauman, Paulo Nazareth, Helmut Newton, Roman Opalka, William Pope.L, Arnulf Rainer, Charles Ray, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Ulrike Rosenbach, Allan Sekula, Cindy Sherman, Jo Spence, Hito Steyerl, Rudolf Stingel, Alina Szapocznikow

Museum Folkwang

Uncertain States - Artistic Strategies in States of Emergency
October 15, 2016 - January 15, 2017
Akademie der Künste
Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin, Germany


UNCERTAIN STATES is an exhibition which investigates the significance of memory and narrative within processes of social and cultural transformation. In an era of grave uncertainty fueled by the destabilizing state and social order in the eastern Mediterranean region as well as terrorism and new forms of nationalism and racism in Europe, artists take up the responsibility for the “History of the Other”, for communicating in an open and differentiated way where our own artistic position is located in relation to the other. This involves dealing with such concerns as collective traumatization, the loss of identity, empathy and the attempt to understand, and the experience of profound precariousness. Through their works, visual artists offer a platform not just for sharing and exchange, but also with the potential to transform experience. For this reason, the exhibition is structured around two equally essential elements – political, social and cultural studies research and debates as well as a series of remarkable documents and objects from the Akademie archives presenting artists’ memories during conditions of states of emergency in Germany between 1933 and 1945. Together, in the media of film, video, photography, sculpture and painting, these elements create an interplay of discursive, documentary and narrative contributions.

Curators Contemporary Art: Anke Hervol, Johannes Odenthal in cooperation with Katerina Gregos, Diana Wechsler; Archive: Werner Heegewaldt, Anneka Metzger

Akademie der Künste

Urgent Conversations: Athens - Antwerp
October 31, 2016 - January 29, 2017
National Museum of Contemporary Art - EMST, Athens
Kallirrolis Avenue & Amvr. Frantzi Str., Athens 11743, Greece


Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp is the first temporary exhibition in the long overdue public unfolding of the Greek National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST). The project offers a reflective dialogue between the collections of EMST and M HKA, the Flemish Contemporary Art Museum, based in Antwerp. This exhibition commences the program EMST in the World.

The impulse of both Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp and EMST in the World is the necessity of cultural dialogue on a global scale, also within multifaceted Europe. Societies nowadays tend to polarize in 49 % versus 51 % camps, negotiations start from antagonistic positions as a default position, introversion and individualism became entrenched states. There may be loftier aspirations than the capacity of conversation, but its recent fragility often reached critical levels and can be described as an urgent situation.

Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp has been developed bottom up, each time starting from work of a Greek and a Belgian artist, that resonate, searching a notion that arises from this resonance, then adding a third artist from elsewhere in one of the two collections. In this way the exhibition was structured around 22 notions with each time work of three artists in a dialogue around it, the total consisting of more than 70 works from 66 artists.

This exhibition enacts the belief of both museums that works of art may constantly emanate new meanings, open questions and initiate a much desired dialogue, that basic ground for human culture. This project is therefore also a counter-proposal to cultural and curatorial sameness, opting instead for a multitude of convincing constellations of subjects, impossible to exhaust, leading up to discussions concerning both individual and collective realizations, and to actions.

Athens and Antwerp seem to represent two extremes of Europe today, but at the same time Greece and Flanders are both regions of Europe that added many crucial threads to its cultural fabric. Institutions like EMST and M HKA may further cultivate that. EMST in the World will develop in the same vein further dialectical relations between EMST and institutions elsewhere with corresponding aims and practices, geared to the research and curation of contemporary art and other contemporary cultural manifestations.

National Museum of Contemporary Art - EMST, Athens

Dancing with Myself: Self-portrait and Self-invention Works from the Pinault Collection
October 7, 2016 - January 15, 2017
Museum Folkwang
Museumsplatz 1, 45128 Essen, Germany

From October 7, 2016, to January 15, 2017, the large exhibition hall in the Museum Folkwang will be given over to an artistic examination of the self. The thread that links the pieces together is the multifaceted presence of the artists in their own work. It will be the first time that such a substantial number of the outstanding group of works acquired by Francois Pinault is to be put on display in Germany. Dancing with Myself is a playful, poetic, poltical, and wild dance through contemporary art moving from the 1960s up to our own time.

In Dancing with Myself the artists themselves play a major part in the show. They are both actors and raw material in their own work—their bodies, their biographies, their social and sexual identities, their humor, their melancholia. Moving beyond the classical self-portrait, the exhibition plays on the themes of artistic temperament and attitude.

At the same time Dancing with Myself is also a vibrant media crossover. Large-format paintings come face to face with huge video installations; bodies turned into photographs encounter sculptural fragments. The artists have inscribed themselves in diverse ways—in the photographic apparatus, the video or film camera, the screen, the space, the conceptual gesture. The body becomes a natural Dadaist tool with childlike qualities; the performative is made into the primary form of representation. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, images turn into productive (distorting) mirrors for bodies and identities.

Dancing with Myself is also a wild ride through the art history of the last fifty years. What still had truth and validity in the 1970s other than the experience of one’s own body? The postmodern irony and challenge of self-images and stereotypes of the time now come into contact with the attitudes of young artists who once again have a fixed social and political position, and use their own biographies and bodies to take a stand among the fault lines of a globalized and unequal world.

Dancing with Myself is a collaboration between the Museum Folkwang and the Pinault Collection, supported by the program Jeunes Commissaires of the Bureau des arts plastiques et de l’architecture of the Institut français.

Artists: 
Adel Abdessemed, Alighiero Boetti, Claude Cahun, Maurizio Cattelan, John Coplans, Urs Fischer, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Lee Friedlander, Gilbert & George, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Félix González-Torres, Rodney Graham, David Hammons, Roni Horn, Kimsooja, Martin Kippenberger, Kurt Kranz, Urs Lüthi, Steve McQueen, Boris Mikhaïlov, Bruce Nauman, Paulo Nazareth, Helmut Newton, Roman Opalka, William Pope.L, Arnulf Rainer, Charles Ray, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Ulrike Rosenbach, Allan Sekula, Cindy Sherman, Jo Spence, Hito Steyerl, Rudolf Stingel, Alina Szapocznikow

Museum Folkwang

Kimsooja, To Breathe - Zone of Zero
October 7, 2016 - January 8, 2017
Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga (CAC Málaga)
C/ Alemania, s/n 29001 Malaga Spain

The CAC Málaga is pleased to present the exhibition To Breathe - Zone of Zero by Kimsooja, the most influential conceptual Korean artist of her generation. The title of the show is an amalgam of the two works that comprise it, a site-specific intervention in the central space and a video work in Espacio 5. Both works invite us to reflect on profound aspects of the human condition and alter our perception of the world by embracing a different cultural sensibility. 

The visual language of Kimsooja (b. Daegu, South Korea, 1957) is rooted in Korean cultural traditions. She has transformed and redefined the concept of painting in the course of her career, and her oeuvre ranges from installations, photographs and performances to videos and site-specific interventions. Cloths, sequences of light and sound, mirrors and the sound of her own breathing are resources that she uses and have become identifying characteristics.

In the 1980s, she began her multidisciplinary practice with textiles, creating geometric patchwork compositions by sewing scraps of used cloth together. Kimsooja uses sewing as a metaphor and as an activity in itself. The bottari, bundles stuffed with clothing and other personal belongings – very common in Korean culture and suggestive of mobility as they are used to transport household goods – are feature prominently in many of her works and are presented in many different ways. Brightly-coloured traditional Korean bed covers are another characteristic element. In the 1990s she started to document and record her performances on video. The video series A Needle Woman, begun in 1999, in which the artist filmed herself, back to the camera, on the crowded streets of some of the world's most populous cities, brought her international fame. In it Kimsooja reverses the notion of the artist as the main actor through non-action in order to reveal a critical attitude, a mindset linked to Zen Buddhism and eastern philosophies.

Over time the artist has acquired a universal, nomadic quality. Kimsooja's art directly addresses profound questions of human existence through reflection and self-awareness. It explores gender (women and the problems they face in different places), identity in the face of change and social flux, time, memory and the human body's relationship with the material world. Concerned by experiences of cultural dislocation in her native land, she also reflects on socio-political issues we face today, such as migration, exile and violence, exposing art's complicated connections to political life. The themes she addresses transcend the local context and are globally relevant.

Her works show a commitment to engage with the audience and inspire solidarity and respect for others by appealing to the sense of humanity we all possess. This is apparent in her video To Breathe - The Flags(2012), in which 246 national flags are slowly superimposed, one by one, in alphabetical order, without hierarchy or political bias, all nations on the same basic level; creating a visual experience in which differences and conflicts between nations can fuse and blend together as one. The piece was originally created for the 2012 London Olympics to reflect the unifying spirit of the games, although that first version only included the flags of participating countries. The flags added later represent nations which are not accepted or officially recognised by the authorities. Overlapping the flags is a gesture of understanding, of fraternity among equals, of respect for differences.

The installation Lotus: Zone of Zero (2016) has turned the exhibition space at the CAC Málaga into a place of contemplation and meditation. Some 700 lotus lanterns cover the ceiling of the room, but instead of the circular mandala design used in previous presentations of this work, here they are arranged in a rectangular pattern. Gregorian, Islamic and Tibetan chants flood the hall and wash over spectators, inviting them to turn their thoughts inwards. Although this project was conceived in 2003 in response to the Iraq War, today it is still a relevant proposal, providing a safe haven where people of different cultures and religions can meet. This zone is a place of respect, reflection, dialogue and harmony – a place of concord.

CAC Málaga

Enacting Stillness will be on view from Wednesday, September 21 to Friday, January 13, 2017. The exhibition considers the political potential of slowing down and stopping as forms of resistance, protest, and refusal. An international group of artists engage in practices that challenge and upend our expectations for the continuity of performative compositions, lines of movement, and modes of thought. Working with the disciplines of choreography, theater, moving image, sculpture and performance, Enacting Stillness presents a multivalent reflection on political histories from the Americas to Europe and Asia, with projects that employ a range of gestures and time-based practices to question what unexpected ruptures like meditation, contemplation, rest, and distortions of movement and time might mean to both the artist and the viewer. 

Enacting Stillness features artists John Ahearn, Rehan Ansari, Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Brendan Fernandes, Alicia Grullon, Yoko Inoue, Joan Jonas, Claudia Joskowicz, Kirsten Justesen, Kimsooja, Carlos Martiel,
Bruce Nauman, Clifford Owens, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Emily Roysdon, and Roman Stětina. Together, the artists in this exhibition reveal the parallel connections between art and political engagement, between stillness and activation. 
 

Please find more details about the exhibition here.
 

For further information, please contact:
William Furio
The 8th Floor
646.839.5903
wfurio@rubinfrost.com

Join the converstation with hastags #The8thFloor, #RubinFoundation, #EnactingStillness, and #ArtandSocialJustice

The 8th Floor, 17 West 17th Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10011

Latest work by Kimsooja realized at Nara

2016.9.3(Sat) - 10.23(Sun)


Gangoji Temple
11 Chuincho, Nara 
Nara Prefecture 630-8392
Japan

Nara city has launched "Culture City of East Asia 2016" this April by having the ancient ship made from the project by Cai Guo-Qiang. For its core event period, all the art installation will be open to public from 3rd September. One of the installation site, Gango-ji has been accompanied by the world known Korean artist, Kimsooja.

On the occasion of Art Celebration in Nara, a Korean artist Kimsooja exhibits her work in this historical site. The artist has been on view in leading art scene such as Pompidou Metz or Guggenheim Bilbao with her solo show last year. She represented her cultural identity or roots through the installation and video using fabrics and other objects from daily life. Kimsooja at Nara for the first time tried to visualize the time which lasted in the specific site distinguishing what is visible now from what has vanished through the historical events. Her egg-like work made from black cast aluminum is reflected against the mirror on the pedestal Ishibutai, which induces the visitors’ introspection: the cyclic time, an Eastern concept, will be associated with the birth and rebirth of the lives.

Kimsooja exhibits another work using video in Shoushibo, inside the Gangoji temple. The stay or residency of the artist herself bring about something reminiscent of the ancient travelers between the city of Nara and of the foreign countries such as Korea and China, where many Buddhist monks or craftsman were traveling. Their experience searching for different culture seems to have prepared the base for the contemporary version of exchange. The event starts on September 3 through October 23 which should attract a broad audience.

Culture City of East Asia 2016, Nara

MMCA HYUNDAI MOTOR SERIES 2016: KIMSOOJA – 마음의 기하학 / ARCHIVE OF MIND

July 27, 2016 – Feb 5, 2017

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
30 Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul
03062, South Korea
Hours: Tue, Thu, Fri, Sun: 10am – 6pm
            Wed, Sat: 10am – 9pm
T +82 2 3701 9500
www.mmca.go.kr

MMCA HYUNDAI MOTORS SERIES 2016: KIMSOOJA – 마음의 기하학 / ARCHIVE OF MIND is being held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul. MMCA has selected internationally-acclaimed artist Kimsooja for the third year of MMCA HYUNDAI MOTOR SERIES. An Exhibition shedding light on her recent works will be on display from July 27th, 2016 through February 5th, 2017.

MMCA HYUNDAI MOTOR SERIES is a long-term annual project inaugurated in 2014, sponsored by Hyundai Motors Company to support solo exhibitions of distinguished Korean artists. By providing a pivotal opportunity for new large-scale works to artists with distinctive practice, the series instills fresh invigorating possibilities into the field of Korean contemporary art.

The exhibition presents for the first time to the public a large-scale performative installation, 마음의기하학 / Archive of Mind; a new sculpture installation, Deductive Object; the new and fifth chapter of her ongoing film series, Thread Routes; and a series of recent works that mark an evolution in Kimsooja’s practice.

마음의기하학 / Archive of Mind offers the artist's reflections on the canonical problem of the act of making and will transform with audience participation throughout the exhibition period. Expanding on the artist's concept of Bottari as a method of wrapping, this participatory workshop invites the audience to roll a lump of clay into spherical forms on a 19-meter-long elliptical wooden table, which doubles as a canvas. The cyclical act introduces a polarity between symmetrical forces of the participants' palms that transpose their state of mind into matter and matter into void. A new sound performance piece titled Unfolding Sphere presents an acoustic counterpart to the rhythmic constellation of the clay spheres.

Presented in the museum’s courtyard is Deductive Object, a large-scale ovoid sculpture suspended on a mirrored plinth. Light diffracting films installed along the courtyard window unfold sunlight into a radiant color spectrum, while the sculpture’s ‘obangsaek’ (Korean traditional colors) surface enfolds the visible spectrum back into a geometric definition. This work is inspired by the Indian tradition of brahmanda stones, also known as "cosmic egg," signifying the birth of totality. 

The artist also premieres the new chapter of her ongoing film series, Thread Routes V. Comprised of six chapters, Thread Routes juxtaposes performative elements of textile culture with parallel structures in nature, architecture, agriculture, and gender relationships. It is conceived as a non-narrative visual poem and a visual anthropology. The new chapter the fifth in the series, takes place in the native cultures of America’s Navajo and Hopi lands against the backdrop of geological wonders, such as Shiprock and Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, and the architectural ruins of the Chaco Culture in New Mexico. These bold monumental forms contrast with primordial acts of weaving and purified forms of Native American crafts, marking the height of the artist’s anthropological inquiry into the birth of gestures that weave, wrap, and unwrap the fabric of the world.

This exhibition also showcases a number of works related to the concept of corporeal geometry that Kimsooja has developed over the span of her career.

For the last 30 years, Kimsooja has worked on an ever-evolving tableau, a continuation of the artist’s early work with painting and re-contextualizing daily objects, actions, as well as confronting urgent social issues such as migration, exile, and violence. The works presented at MMCA further her commitment to creating an encounter with the public and continue the artist’s early meditation on non-doing and non-making as a form of art practice. Kimsooja’s enduring examination of dualism in life and art transforms elements of performance into a pursuit of totality.

Kimsooja (1957- ) was born in Daegu, South Korea, and lives and works in New York, Paris, and Seoul. She has had major solo exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Metz (2015); Guggenheim, Bilbao (2015); Vancouver Art Gallery (2013); Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2013); Perez Art Museum, Miami (2012); Baltic Center, UK (2009); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2006); Magasin 3, Stockholm (2006); National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens(2005); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (2005); Museum Kunstpalast (2004); Contemporary Art Museum, Lyon (2003); PAC, Milan (2003); Kunsthalle Bern(2002); P.S.1/MOMA (2001); ICC, Tokyo (2001); Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2000), among other institutions.  Kimsooja has participated in international group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (1999, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2013); Gwangju Biennale (2012, 2002,1995); Busan Biennale (2014, 2002); Moscow Biennale (2009); Whitney Biennial (2002); Lyon Biennale (2000); Sao Paulo biennale (1998); Istanbul Biennale (1997); Manifesta 1 (1995), among many others.

MMCA, Seoul

Jameco Exchange
No Longer Empty
89-62B 165th Street, Queens 11432
May 21 - July 17, 2016
Opening: Saturday, May 21, 12 - 6pm

No Longer Empty is pleased to present Jameco Exchange, a site-responsive exhibition and socially engaged education platform that revolves around the art of storytelling about a place: Jamaica, Queens. Located on 165th Street in the heart of downtown Jamaica–between the old trail and the former Beaver Pond–Jameco Exchange interweaves themes of commerce, movement, and travel, considering how both objects and stories create resonant forms of communication and exchange.

Jameco Exchange takes its name from the etymology of “Jamaica” (Queens)–a distortion of the name of the Jameco Indians–and the first settlers' purchase of Jamaica for two guns, a coat, powder and lead. From its origins as an ancient trade route to a rural village, today's downtown Jamaica is a vibrant commercial and intermodal corridor. With a plush history of trade and commerce, jazz and hip-hop; Jamaica’s rich political heritage includes the abolitionist spirit of 18th-century New York Senator Rufus King; the activism of 19th-century farmer, abolitionist and publisher Wilson Rantus; and the political activism of former Black Panther Assata Shakur. “The Green,” an African-American homestead from the 1800s that once ran parallel to Jamaica Avenue is now concealed by concrete, industrial buildings and garages, weathering the next crux of significant change. Featuring site-responsive artworks informed by Jamaica’s global urban setting, Jameco Exchange is inspired by the retail vernacular of the two-story storefront and the cobblestone pedestrian mall in which it is situated, the social culture of Jamaica Avenue, and the histories of Jamaica, Queens, through the lens of collective narrative.

No Longer Empty

Ordinary / Extraordinary: The Democratization of Art or the Will to Change Things
20 Bienal de Arte Paiz
Historic Center, Guatemala City
June 4 to July 3, 2016

The 20 Bienal de Arte Paiz, celebrates 40 years of supporting the Guatemalan visual arts by the Fundación Paiz for art and culture. The twentieth edition aspires to greater inclusiveness by bringing the public closer to contemporary art, through the promotion of a simple and direct dialogue as a first step for a better understanding of the art of our time. In the historic center of Guatemala City, the Bienal de Arte Paiz will endeavor to close the gap that exists between the public and the work of art through participatory works and other works inspired by the idea of art and life. The works, created by national and international artists, span from the sixties to the present. The 20 Bienal de Arte Paiz will also explore the notion of the everyday through various themes: Deconstructions, Obsessions, and the Exercise of Collecting Objects; Environments (Observation, Space and Place); Individual and Social Identity; Politics and Activism; and the Ordinary Unconscious.

20 Bienal de Arte Paiz

Public to Private: Photography in Korean art Since 1989
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
May 4 - July 24, 2016

This exhibition sheds light on how photography has been blazing its new path forward while interacting with a range of various other contemporary visual languages in the past three-decade history of contemporary Korean art.

1957 saw the first photography exhibition in Korea entitled The Family of Man, which was a traveling exhibition organized by MoMA, New York. Focusing on the nature and harmony of "Man" after World Wars I & II, it had a huge bearing on Korean photography. Since the exhibition, the Korean photography scene had been dominated by realism-based documentary and journalism photography. This exhibition directs attention to the development of the medium of photography in the history of Korean art: from realism-based public images in its beginning to the conceptual expression and aesthetic language of individual photographers in the second half of the 1980s and onward.

Especially, the year 1989 is of great importance with respect to globalization. Brought about by the Tiananmen Square protest in China (June), Perestroika in the Soviet Union (August), and the breakdown of the Berlin War in Germany (November), the end of the Cold War transformed the values of international society. Korean society contributed to the rapidity of globalization through the hosting of the 1988 Olympics and the 1989 liberalization of overseas travel, and the views and attitudes of photographers underwent a tremendous change.

In the international contemporary art scene the photographic works of Jeff Wall and the Dusseldorf school rose to prominence, and this change induced Korean photographers' and artists' contemporary participation in the formation of a new horizon of photography.

Public to Private reveals how those photographers and contemporary artists have appropriated, used, and reformatted into their own visual languages the medium of photography in the global art scene. At this point when the generation of digital revolution has witnessed changes for the past 30 years and is facing the new possibilities of photography, it commits itself to reading into the context in which a photographer is an artist.


The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

La Terre, Le Feu, L'Esprit: Chefs-d'œuvre de la Céramique Coréenne
Grand Palais, Paris
April 27 - June 20, 2016

Kimsooja, Earth-Water-Fire-Air

The work of Kimsooja, Earth-Water-Fire-Air, which is based on the four elements of nature and their organic combination, seems to consist only of typical natural landscapes of a volcanic area, when seen in just a visual context. These landscapes capture the "natural phenomenon" itself, without any deliberate intervention, artificial transformation or staging on the artist's part. The artist silently brings the spectators in front of the nature.

It is a world of principles in nature, origins of matter, essence of human life, mutuality and coexistence of all such qualities. The four elements of nature – earth, water, fire and air – are the roots of western philosophy, but also related to the five elements of creation (earth, water, fire, wind and void) according to Buddhist philosophy. Such elements, which are the core of Eastern and Western thoughts, and the energy created by their mutual combination enable us to think about the recurrent structure of circulation known as the birth and dearth of all things, to realize the mysterious relationship between nature (matter) and humans, and to ponder on the life of humans.

The minimum intervention and minimum action in Kimsooja's work, her aesthetics of the least in her work process is a kind of meditation, "making nothing and being nothing." Making nothing but revealing something more powerful, visualizing perpetuity through extinction, and telling the most with the least – this is her work.

(from the essay by Sung Won Kim, "About nothingness: being nothing and making nothing," Earth, Water, Fire, Air" for the catalogue for the Atelier Hermes solo show in Seoul, 2009.)

Grand Palais

Architecture of Life
The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), California
January 31 - May 29, 2016

Architecture of Life, the inaugural exhibition in BAMPFA's landmark new building, explores the ways that architecture—as concept, metaphor, and practice—illuminates various aspects of life experience: the nature of the self and psyche, the fundamental structures of reality, and the power of the imagination to reshape our world. Occupying every gallery in the new building, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the exhibition comprises over two hundred works of art in a wide range of media, as well as scientific illustrations and architectural drawings and models, made over the past two thousand years. Boundary-breaking, innovative, and radically interdisciplinary, the exhibition presents visually exquisite, rarely seen works in ways that suggest new connections and meanings.

The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)

Rever D'Un Autre Monde
Centre D'histoire de La Résistance et de la Déportation
Februrary 4 - May 29, 2016

The CHRD presents a group exhibition delivering different writings on the theme of travel and exile of non-European migrants, through a selection of artistic proposals.

The project is a continuation exhibitions commuters and Chechens Travel aboveground, which addressed the theme of departure, suffered or voluntary. Rely on art works, rather than photojournalism traditionally chosen by the museum to address contemporary themes, is to bet on the aesthetic experience as a means of access to knowledge of painful problems, which media coverage paradoxically intense just ignore.

A constant phenomenon in the history of mankind, migration is always linked to economic or geostrategic context. To address this, the CHRD is interested in representation that give contemporary artists and photographers. The fields they explore, they emphasize the courses deliver sensitive chronic, sometimes metaphorical, one of the major events of the last thirty years.

Centre D'histoire de La Résistance et de la Déportation

The Vertigo Effect
MAC/VAL Musée d'art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne
October 24, 2015 - October 24, 2016

This new hanging, titled "L'Effet Vertigo", is guided by the artists' individual relations to history in a double, reverse movement which implies a concomitant closing-in and distancing. This filmic process was invented by Alfred Hitchcock in Vertigo in 1958, in order to suggest the dizziness felt by Scottie (James Stewart) on the famous stairs of the tower. It is designed to dramatize the subject by keeping them in the frame, so they don't go out of view, by means of a simultaneous forward and backward oscillation.

This can be taken as a metaphor for reading history in the present and for the stratagems and various attitudes adopted in its regard, from the distancing vital to visual focus to the displacements and changes of scenery that are sometimes needed to get closer to the subject.

"I was and remain persuaded that the role assigned to creators is out of proportion compared to the one allowed to viewers. There is a whole history of art that needs to be rewritten here." François Morellet.

With his customary insolence, François Morellet illumines this new hanging of the collection by questioning the notion of artistic genius and asserting the creative role of the interpreter. For it is the interpreter who gives and creates meaning, based on the narrative of the works. It is the beholder who adds, valorises, questions, and turns into music the story, notes, words, objects and time itself. Today, the museum is inviting visitors to question what constitutes their relation to the artwork and to history, what feeds and orients their gaze, this dimension of creativity, this space of thought that belongs to each one of us.

To this end, the exhibition sequence is deployed like a narrative in which the works embody and explore the questions of the gaze, the model, interpretation, reinterpretation, and revisiting. The artists brought together here reread, remake, replay or reinterpret historical facts, the use of materials, themes and subjects; they thus bring them into the light of a present that metamorphoses (them), either through the filter of their personal experience, or by sampling parts of this real past — objects, archives and stories — and projecting them into a universe that is other, a different situation, and towards a new meaning.

The hanging sets up a dialogue between works that relate the history of recent conflicts and explorations, episodes from scientific history, from the history of colonialism and decolonisation of which these artists are the products, that tell of traditions and rites, the history of objects, part of our own cultural history.


MAC/VAL

Kimsooja, Earth-Water-Fire-Air The work of Kimsooja, Earth-Water-Fire-Air, which is based on the four elements of nature and their organic combination, seems to consist only of typical natural landscapes of a volcanic area, when seen in just a visual context. These landscapes capture the "natural phenomenon" itself, without any deliberate intervention, artificial transformation or staging on the artist's part. The artist silently brings the spectators in front of the nature.

It is a world of principles in nature, origins of matter, essence of human life, mutuality and coexistence of all such qualities. The four elements of nature – earth, water, fire and air – are the roots of western philosophy, but also related to the five elements of creation (earth, water, fire, wind and void) according to Buddhist philosophy. Such elements, which are the core of Eastern and Western thoughts, and the energy created by their mutual combination enable us to think about the recurrent structure of circulation known as the birth and dearth of all things, to realize the mysterious relationship between nature (matter) and humans, and to ponder on the life of humans.

The minimum intervention and minimum action in Kimsooja's work, her aesthetics of the least in her work process is a kind of meditation, "making nothing and being nothing." Making nothing but revealing something more powerful, visualizing perpetuity through extinction, and telling the most with the least – this is her work.

(from the essay by Sung Won Kim, "About nothingness: being nothing and making nothing," Earth, Water, Fire, Air" for the catalogue for the Atelier Hermes solo show in Seoul, 2009.)

From May 16 onwards, Kimsooja's video installation Aire de Tierra / Air of  Earth (2009) will be screened in the courtyard of The Temple in Beijing. Aire de Tierra / Air of Earth is one chapter of the artist's 8-channel video installation  Earth – Water – Fire – Air. The title as well as the main concept of this multi-channel performance video are based on the four fundamental elements of nature. They constantly interrelate to one another as they continue to merge, transform and extinct while organically embracing and excluding one another. Video footages taken in Lanzarote Island and Guatemalan volcanoes are  featured as the artist's visual manifestation of nirvana in which all four basic elements reincarnate; burning lava flow became rocks and dust that blew in the air. According to eastern philosophy, such as Zen Buddhism and Taoism, each element's property is created by the other, as is reflected in each chapter's title (Fire of Earth, Water of Earth, Earth of Water, Air of Fire, Air of Earth, Air of Water, Fire of Air and Water of Air.
 

Kimsooja's outdoor projection will be on view every evening between 6:30 pm and 11:00 pm, until May 1. Located in Beijing, this venue is a forgotten Qing Dynasty temple that has been restored and transformed into a boutique hotel and art space. The antique structure—known to the faithful as Zhizhusi, the Temple of Wisdom—was one of three Tibetan Buddhist temples built in the mid-18th century near the Imperial Palace. Battered and charred by fire, the edifice was hardly promising for development. But years of restoration has transformed it into an art hotel with eight luxury rooms, a gallery, a restaurant, a sculpture courtyard. Stripped of its bleak Communist facade, the near-ruined temple today has a new life, subtly blending Eastern spirituality with contemporary Western style. Today, The Temple is known as the only venue in China that houses a skypace installation of James Turell, 'Gathered Sky'. 

The Temple Hotel
23 Shatan Beijie
Dongcheng District
Beijing, China 

www.thetemplehotel.com
templecollection@thetemplehotel.com
WeChat ID Temple东景缘

More information about The Temple can be found here.

Architecture of Life

University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
January 31 – May 29, 2016
Curated by Lawrence Rinder


Architecture of Life, the inaugural exhibition in BAMPFA's landmark new building, explores the ways that architecture—as concept, metaphor, and practice—illuminates various aspects of life experience: the nature of the self and psyche, the fundamental structures of reality, and the power of the imagination to reshape our world. Occupying every gallery in the new building, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the exhibition comprises over two hundred works of art in a wide range of media, as well as scientific illustrations and architectural drawings and models, made over the past two thousand years. 

Architecture of Life is the U.S. premere of Kimsooja's Thread Routes - Chapter II. Thread Routes is the first 16-mm film series produced by multi-disciplinary conceptual artist Kimsooja (b. 1957, Daegu, Korea). This ongoing project consists of six chapters, each shot in a different part of the world, and together they form a mosaic of common performative elements that unite different textile cultures.

These films uncover the structural continuity between textile, architecture, nature, agriculture, and gender relations through the framework of a non-narrative documentary, plunging the viewer into the realm of poetry and visual anthropology. The artist first conceived this series in 2002 after visiting Brugge and experiencing the process of lace making.

Kimsooja established her multidisciplinary practice in the beginning of 1980s. Taking yibulbo (Korean bedcover) as a tableau and as a frame of life, her work evolved through the use of textiles and performance. Bottari (traditional Korean cloth bundle), as an extension of this idea, has been an essential feature in many of her works. Thread Routes is directly related to her earlier sewn pieces, wrapped objects, and A Needle Woman performance videos, in which she placed herself in the middle of vibrant urban fabrics of metropolises around the world.

View a trailer of Thread Routes - Chapter II

BAMPFA

Where Do We Migrate To?

Värmlands Museum, Karlstad
September 19, 2015– February 22, 2016
Curated by Niels Van Tomme


Where Do We Migrate To? explores contemporary manifestations of required mobility as well as experiences of displacement and exile, and examines how intensified situations of transition inexorably undermine our cultural and personal notions of settlement and belonging. In establishing an imaginative framework that allows artworks to inspire new insights about such conditions, the exhibition also questions notions of inherence and destiny.

View a trailer of A Needle Woman

Värmlands Museum

Fear Nothing, She Says

Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, Spain
November 17, 2015 – February 28, 2016
Curated by Rosa Martinez

Organised in connection with the 5th Centenary of the Birth of Saint Teresa of Jesus, the aim of this exhibition is to explore the meaning of spiritual searches at the onset of the third millennium, establishing the need to find their common anthropological thread and endorsing their connection with creative languages.

The exhibition title Fear Nothing, She Says. When Art Reveals Mystic Truths revises the verse by Teresa of Jesus, transforming 'Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you,' into the simpler 'fear nothing', which it relates to the novel Détruire, dit-elle by Marguerite Duras, another great authoress and sufferer for love. The afterthought 'she says' reaffirms the fact that the invitation to overcome obstacles and fears is conveyed in the words of a woman, and therefore opens up to the new developments of global ethical and aesthetic awareness that demands, as Saint Teresa herself often did, the inclusion of women as subjects of knowledge and power.

The twenty-one contemporary artists have been chosen for their thematic, conceptual, existential or political affinities with the figure and the legacy of Teresa of Avila: Marina Abramovic, Anila Quayyum Agha, José Ramón Ais, Pilar Albarracín, Francis Alÿs, Miquel Barceló, Louise Bourgeois, Dora García, Anish Kapoor, Waqas Khan, Kimsooja, Cristina Lucas, Bruce Nauman, Nikos Navridis, Rivane Neuenschwander, Cai Guo-Qiang, Eglė Rakauskaitė, Soledad Sevilla, Josefa Tolrà, Eulalia Valldosera and Bill Viola. Works designed specifically for the show complement others that coexist with unique pieces from the museum's historical collections.

View a trailer of A Needle Woman - Kitakyushu


Museo Nacional De Escultura

Remember Lidice at Edition Block, Berlin, Germany
September 12, 2015 – February 13, 2016
Curated by René Block


The year 2017 will mark the 75th anniversary of the massacre of Lidice that was committed by the National Socialists. In commemoration of this incident the two previous Lidice exhibitions »Hommage à Lidice« (1967) and »Pro Lidice« (1997) will be continued by a third project »Remember Lidice« (2015). In response to an appeal issued in 1967 by Sir Barnett Stross, head of the "Lidice-shall-live" committee, René Block invited, both in 1967 and 1997, young artists that were representative of the current German art scene to donate a work for a museum to be built in Lidice. The resulting collection distinguishes itself by high artistic quality and a cross section of the respective contemporary art production. For the project »Remember Lidice« artists have been invited for the third time to donate works for Lidice. With this chapter, the frame of reference will once more be broadened: What started out as a German-Czech issue with the contributions of 21 West-German artists in 1967 (»Hommage à Lidice«), and continued in 1997 as a project of a united Germany with contributions from 31 artists (»Pro Lidice«), will in 2015 become an international subject matter, with the participation of 44 international artists. The wish to expand the collection in Lidice, which is currently exhibited in the former community centre now reconstructed as a museum, by the newly donated works is meant to be a renewed gesture of solidarity. Beginning in September, the works will successively be collected in the exhibition space of Edition Block and can be seen there until February 2016. The once completed collection will also be shown at the Kunsthalle Mannheim before it will officially be handed over to Lidice.

Edition Block

30 Years Galerie Tschudi. Zuoz, Switzerland
December 19, 2015 – March 19, 2016


In celebration of the gallery's 30 year anniversary Galerie Tschudi will be exhibiting the work of Ulrich Rückriem, Alan Charlton, Richard Long, Mario Merz, Carl Andre, Niele Toroni, Hamish Fulton, Martina Klein, Melissa Kretschmar, Dan Walsh, Balthasar Burkhard, Petra Wunderlich, Callum Innes, Bethan Huws, Not Vitals, Stanley Brouwn, Kimsooja, Su-Mei Tse, and Julian Charrière.

Galerie Tschudi

a.p.r.e.s Gilles Coudert is invited to the 9th International Days of Films on Art, held in the Auditorium of the Louvre Museum January 22 to 31, 2016. 

A projection of his films is scheduled Friday, January 29th at 14:30 and will be followed by a discussion with John Paul Fargier, director, producer and critic.

Screening of "Daniel Buren, Monumenta 2012" (2013/52 min.), "Tadashi Kawamata , Scheiterturm" (2014/34 min.), and "Kimsooja , Le Voyage immobile" (2012/26 min.)


Daniel Buren, Monumenta 2012 (2013 / 50 min.) A film by Gilles Coudert This documentary reflects the latest edition of the Monumenta at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2012 dedicated to Daniel Buren. Interviews with key stakeholders (Daniel Buren, artist, Patrick Bouchain, architect Marc Sanchez, Commissioner; Alexandre Meyer, musician Guy Lelong, critic and writer; etc.) intersect views on this project and shed light on the issues of this work. The film attempts to show the dark side of the exposure and the human dimension of such an undertaking through the portraits of people with investees for installation but also its practice by the public and finally dialogue between the proposal of Daniel Buren and various artistic events scheduled throughout the duration of the exhibition.
> See an Extract... 

Tadashi Kawamata Scheiterturm (2014/34 min.) A film by Gilles CoudertTadashi Kawamata responds to the invitation of the Kunstmuseum Thurgau in the heart of the Charterhouse Ittingen in Switzerland with students by building a tower made ​​up of thousands of firewood logs from the forest area. The people, students, organizers and project stakeholders share with us this adventure and give us their impressions.
> Available in book-DVD 
> See an Extract... 

Kimsooja, Le Voyage Immobile (2012/26 min.) A film by Gilles Coudert Over an interview conducted by Gilles Coudert, Kimsooja discusses her artistic journey through many projects and film archives. Its first facilities to its most recent projects, it focuses its work over his personal journey. It evokes its traditional fabric -based works such as bottaris video in the series of her "Needle Woman" or more recent projects like Mumbai and remarkable installation in the Crystal Pavilion of Reina Sofia.
> Available in DVD Collection WORKS & PROCESS
> See an Extract...


Download full program here: http://mini-site.louvre.fr/trimestriel/2015/brochure_Jifa_2016/#1 
Practical Information: http://www.louvre.fr/rencontre-avec-gilles-coudert?cycle=120178

Happy New Year!

Peace & Love

Kimsooja Studio

Kimsooja - To Breathe is on view at the Centre Pompidou Metz until January 4, 2016

To Breathe, 2015, site-specific installation consisting of video projection To Breathe: Invisible Mirror, Invisible Needle, 2005, mirror, diffraction grating film, and sound performance The Weaving Factory 2004, at Centre Pompidou-Metz, photograph by Jaeho Chong. Commissioned by Centre Pompidou-Metz, Courtesy of Institut français/Année France Corée, Kukje Gallery, Seoul and Kimsooja Studio

Art21
Kimsooja:Collaboration on Campus - Nanotechnology & Contemporary Art


In this ART21-produced special feature, artist Kimsooja collaborates with scientists and nanotechnologists to create an iridescent steel and polymer sculpture for the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY. Developed in collaboration with architect Jaeho Chong and Cornell nano material engineer Ulirich Wiesner, Ph. D., the 46-foot-tall needle-shaped structure A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory,u Earth is a Sovenir (2014) is the result of the artist's first-ever collaboration with scientists. "This tradition of bringing art and science together precedes modernism," says Stephanie Owens, director of Cornell Council for the Arts. "So [Kimsooja] and [Wiesner] working at a similar interface related to light and objects was a definite continuation of this tradition.

The sculpture's plexi-glass panels are coated with an nano polymer film—molecularly engineered by Cornell materials scientists in Wiesner's lab—to produce experiences inspired by naturally-occurring light phenomenon. "We use iridescence as a principle in order to mimic the effect of the butterfly wing," says Wiesner.

A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir was created as part of the artist's residency for the Cornell Council for the Arts 2014 Biennial.


Art21

Kimsooja - To Breathe

Centre Pompidou-Metz, France
October 26, 2015 – January 4, 2016


To mark France's Korean year, a site-specific installation by the multidisciplinary conceptual artist Kimsooja invites viewers to partake in a transformative performance of light, sound, and the architecture of Centre Pompidou-Metz.

For the past thirty years, Kimsooja has conceived a body of work often described as conceptual, humanist, and ethical. It transcends current issues of identity, migration, ideological and physical divide across people and borders, to find expression in a visual poetry and a life-performance resting beyond material conditions and the act of making.

To Breathe is an invitation to contemplate. Its unfolding and mirroring of light into a fully visible iridescent spectrum establish a tri-dimensional tableau, a revelation of one's body in space and time that defies horizontality and verticality. Kimsooja's enduring examination of dualism in life and art transforms elements of painting into a new language of light, sound, and reflections in pursuit of totality.


Centre Pompidou-Metz

Fear Nothing, She Says

Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, Spain
November 17, 2015 – February 28, 2016

Organised in connection with the 5th Centenary of the Birth of Saint Teresa of Jesus, the aim of this exhibition is to explore the meaning of spiritual searches at the onset of the third millennium, establishing the need to find their common anthropological thread and endorsing their connection with creative languages.
 
The exhibition title Fear Nothing, She Says. When Art Reveals Mystic Truths revises the verse by Teresa of Jesus, transforming 'Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you,' into the simpler 'fear nothing', which it relates to the novel Détruire, dit-elle by Marguerite Duras, another great authoress and sufferer for love. The afterthought 'she says' reaffirms the fact that the invitation to overcome obstacles and fears is conveyed in the words of a woman, and therefore opens up to the new developments of global ethical and aesthetic awareness that demands, as Saint Teresa herself often did, the inclusion of women as subjects of knowledge and power.

The twenty-one contemporary artists have been chosen for their thematic, conceptual, existential or political affinities with the figure and the legacy of Teresa of Avila: Marina Abramovic, Anila Quayyum Agha, José Ramón Ais, Pilar Albarracín, Francis Alÿs, Miquel Barceló, Louise Bourgeois, Dora García, Anish Kapoor, Waqas Khan, Kimsooja, Cristina Lucas, Bruce Nauman, Nikos Navridis, Rivane Neuenschwander, Cai Guo-Qiang, Eglė Rakauskaitė, Soledad Sevilla, Josefa Tolrà, Eulalia Valldosera and Bill Viola. Works designed specifically for the show complement others that coexist with unique pieces from the museum's historical collections.

Museo Nacional De Escultura

Exhibition from the Collection, MAC/VAL, Paris
October 24, 2015– January 2016
Opening Reception: Friday October 23, 2015

Kimsooja's video piece records a performance in Paris in which she evokes the constant state of migration that characterizes our global society. The Bottari Truck loaded local immigrants' bedcovers and used clothing donated from all over Paris on top of an old Peugeot pick-up truck. Kim started her "migration" from Place de la Liberation, where Musée MAC/VAL, which commissioned the piece, is located, and which is also on the border of the area of Paris where many immigrants from China, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe live. The truck moved through the neighborhoods of Paris, each containing a different history of immigrants to France: Ivry (where there is a Chinese community), Place d'Italy, Bastille, Place de la Republic, Canal Saint-Martin (which used to have homeless people's tents along the canal), Gare du Nord, Goutte d'Or (where there are African, Middle Eastern, Indian communities), and finally to Église Saint-Bernard, where in 1996 many illegal immigrants fought for their rights to live in France.

MAC/VAL

Art_Textiles, The Whitworth at The University of Manchester
October 10, 2015 – January 31, 2016

Since the 1960s, a growing body of contemporary art demonstrates a new engagement with the materials and techniques of crafts, particularly textiles, raising questions about the value of the handmade in the digital age. This show will include artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Ghada Amer and Kimsooja who use textiles as a powerful tool for expressing ideas about the social, political, and artistic.

Art_Textiles - runs 10 October to 31 January 2016. Free Entry.

The Whitworth at The University of Manchester

Remember Lidice at Edition Block, Berlin, Germany
September 12, 2015 – February 13, 2016


The year 2017 will mark the 75th anniversary of the massacre of Lidice that was committed by the National Socialists. In commemoration of this incident the two previous Lidice exhibitions »Hommage à Lidice« (1967) and »Pro Lidice« (1997) will be continued by a third project »Remember Lidice« (2015). In response to an appeal issued in 1967 by Sir Barnett Stross, head of the "Lidice-shall-live" committee, René Block invited, both in 1967 and 1997, young artists that were representative of the current German art scene to donate a work for a museum to be built in Lidice. The resulting collection distinguishes itself by high artistic quality and a cross section of the respective contemporary art production. For the project »Remember Lidice« artists have been invited for the third time to donate works for Lidice. With this chapter, the frame of reference will once more be broadened: What started out as a German-Czech issue with the contributions of 21 West-German artists in 1967 (»Hommage à Lidice«), and continued in 1997 as a project of a united Germany with contributions from 31 artists (»Pro Lidice«), will in 2015 become an international subject matter, with the participation of 44 international artists. The wish to expand the collection in Lidice, which is currently exhibited in the former community centre now reconstructed as a museum, by the newly donated works is meant to be a renewed gesture of solidarity. Beginning in September, the works will successively be collected in the exhibition space of Edition Block and can be seen there until February 2016. The once completed collection will also be shown at the Kunsthalle Mannheim before it will officially be handed over to Lidice.

Edition Block

Experiments with Truth: Gandhi and Images of Nonviolence, Crescent Museum, Geneva, Switzerland
April 15, 2015 – January 3, 2016


Nonviolence immediately calls to mind a face, a smile, an easily recognizable figure: Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1927 Gandhi published an autobiography entitled “My experiments with truth.” The title refers to satyagraha, the “force of truth,” the cornerstone of civil disobedience that he championed and exemplified throughout his life. A milestone of nonviolent thought and action, Gandhi’s life story was the natural choice for the guiding principle and title of an exhibition on the art of nonviolence.

Gandhi’s personal, spiritual, ethical and political journey is illustrated in its entire complexity through a large number of documents, which include a remarkable series of photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson. The exhibition also reveals, however, the extent of his legacy: Experiments with Truth presents nonviolence as a powerful inspirational force in the visual arts. With around one hundred items on display, the exhibition initiates a dialogue between cultures, the arts and techniques: tantric paintings, Koran parchments, Jain sculptures, Byzantine icons. Contemporary artists such as Marlene Dumas, Dan Flavin, Amar Kanwar, Kimsooja, Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ai Weiwei also take up the messages of nonviolence.

Experiments with Truth. Gandhi and Images of Nonviolence is organized by The Menil Collection, Houston.

Red Crescent Museum, Geneva

Chambres d'enfants at Musée du Papier Peints, Mézières, Switzerland
September 26, 2015 – May 29, 2016


In collaboration with the Museum wallpaper Rixheim (F) and the works of Hugo Brülhart, Vincent Kohler, Isabelle Krieg, Ursula Palla, Kimsooja, Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger and theatrical performances videos of our children

The exhibition is dedicated to the realm of children in the context of the universe of nature. In the 19th century, the perception of the early years have seen a change towards a new "culture of sentiment". An enriched bourgeoisie treats health and children's education. This one gets in the bourgeois homes, a room of its own. The designers are beginning to provide furniture and decorations that combine education and fun to feed the imagination of the child. From the introduction of compulsory schooling in the last quarter of the 19th century, the children of the working classes have the chance to see an education. However, the workers and peasants communities, parents and children are often crowded into one or two rooms with little privacy. From the first third of the 20th century, the nursery moved at progressively in all areas of society. Today in our era of globalization, thousands of people are moving, homeless without home, without individual room. The migration peaked akin to that of the second world war.

The exhibition presents a selection of wallpapers from the 18th to the 20th century children's room from the Wallpaper Museum Rixheim. One can also discover inter interventions by contemporary artists on the theme of nature, a venture of intimacy, the childlike and playful spirit that we all carry within us. It also involves our contemporary reality with a major focus on global migration.

Musée du Papier Peint

Kimsooja - To Breathe


Centre Pompidou-Metz, France
October 26, 2015 – January 4, 2016


To mark France's Korean year, a site-specific installation by the multidisciplinary conceptual artist Kimsooja invites viewers to partake in a transformative performance of light, sound, and the architecture of Centre Pompidou-Metz.

For the past thirty years, Kimsooja has conceived a body of work often described as conceptual, humanist, and ethical. It transcends current issues of identity, migration, ideological and physical divide across people and borders, to find expression in a visual poetry and a life-performance resting beyond material conditions and the act of making.

To Breathe is an invitation to contemplate. Its unfolding and mirroring of light into a fully visible iridescent spectrum establish a tri-dimensional tableau, a revelation of one's body in space and time that defies horizontality and verticality. Kimsooja's enduring examination of dualism in life and art transforms elements of painting into a new language of light, sound, and reflections in pursuit of totality.


Centre Pompidou-Metz

Kimsooja - To Breathe, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France
October 26, 2015 – January 4, 2016

To Breathe and its latest installment at Centre Pompidou Metz seeks to be the sum of the artist's early meditation on painting, where the surface of the canvas is intuited to become a mirror that wraps identity, space, and time; and where brushstrokes are destined to dematerialize into a splitting of light.

For this exhibition Kimsooja takes on the spaces of Centre Pompidou Metz's ingenuous architecture to create a three-dimensional tableau that transforms a long span of the museum's gallery and its bay windows into a liquid-like mirrored surface, that the artist expressed to be in previous installations an ever-expanding "fabric that is sewn by our gaze¹."

Thinking of mirrors as an opportunity to fold and unfold spaces (A continuation of the artist's involvement with the Korean tradition of wrapping belongings into travel bundles known as Bottari in Korean), Kimsooja first made use of mirrors for Harald Szeemann's 1999 Venice Biennale where she reflected a loaded truck onto a wall sized mirror that provided a virtual exit for the vehicle. The piece was dedicated to the refugees of Kosovo. She further explored infinite spaces by installing mirrors on the walls of a laundry installation of abandoned Korean bedcovers for A Mirror Woman (2002), and pointed to the migratory perspective opened by mirrors while reflecting the sky on the ground of her mirrored installation The Ground to Nowhere (Honolulu City Hall, 2003). Always in search of wrapping space and time, Kimsooja enveloped the transparent building structure of the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid with mirrors and diffraction films (To Breathe/Respirare, 2006); and the Korean Pavilion in Venice with diffracting spectrums and reflective surfaces (To Breathe: Bottari, 2013) that invited the audience into a journey inside and outside of themselves, and into a poetic space where our perception of light, color and orientation is deconstructed and exposed as an unfolding plane.

To Breathe, performed for the Centre Pompidou Metz spans the museum's entrance forum area, the 80 meters long Gallery 2, and the breadth of the opposite ends of two bay windows. The space of the museum's gallery will find its utmost expression as a tableau: from the windows light is split, to be reflected on an almost liquid surface and reunited inside the projection of the artist's video piece To Breathe: a series of digital monochromes accompanied by the sound of a chorus of the artist's inhalation and exhalation.

Kimsooja's everlasting examination of the dualism of light and surface, sewing and weaving, wrapping and unwrapping; her transposition of the concept of point as the pin of a needle and that of line as a thread, and of plane as the reflecting surface of a mirror, questions the foundation of materiality as it pertains to migration and exile, and exposes the complex relations of art and humanity, cultural and political existence.


¹In An Interview with Kimsooja, Olivia Maria Rubio, 2006, on the occasion of To Breathe/Respirare, Palacio de Cristal, Parque del Retiro, Madrid


Centre Pompidou-Metz

Exhibition from the Collection, MAC/VAL, Paris
October 24, 2015– January 2016
Opening Reception: Friday October 23, 2015

Kimsooja's video piece records a performance in Paris in which she evokes the constant state of migration that characterizes our global society. The Bottari Truck loaded local immigrants' bedcovers and used clothing donated from all over Paris on top of an old Peugeot pick-up truck. Kim started her "migration" from Place de la Liberation, where Musée MAC/VAL, which commissioned the piece, is located, and which is also on the border of the area of Paris where many immigrants from China, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe live. The truck moved through the neighborhoods of Paris, each containing a different history of immigrants to France: Ivry (where there is a Chinese community), Place d'Italy, Bastille, Place de la Republic, Canal Saint-Martin (which used to have homeless people's tents along the canal), Gare du Nord, Goutte d'Or (where there are African, Middle Eastern, Indian communities), and finally to Église Saint-Bernard, where in 1996 many illegal immigrants fought for their rights to live in France.

MAC/VAL

Kimsooja, A Beggar Woman - Cairo, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusets
October 9 – November 8, 2015

A Beggar Woman - Cairo is one of three videos in the Beggar Woman series of 2000–2001, including performances on the streets of Mexico City and Lagos.

A Beggar Woman - Cairo was purchased with the gift of Jungkoo An and Ae Young Han, in honor of their daughter, Sabina An, class of 2016; an anonymous gift; and funds from the Contemporary Associates. 

This video is the inaugural work shown in the Museum's New Media Gallery on the lower level.

Smith College Museum of Art

Art_Textiles, The Whitworth at The University of Manchester
October 10, 2015 – January 31, 2016

Since the 1960s, a growing body of contemporary art demonstrates a new engagement with the materials and techniques of crafts, particularly textiles, raising questions about the value of the handmade in the digital age. This show will include artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Ghada Amer and Kimsooja who use textiles as a powerful tool for expressing ideas about the social, political, and artistic.

Art_Textiles - runs 10 October to 31 January 2016. Free Entry.

The Whitworth at The University of Manchester

PROPORTIO, Axel and May Vervoordt Foundation, Palazzo Fortuni, Venice
May 9 – November 22, 2015

The exhibition PROPORTIO examines the role that proportion plays in our lives and the complex universe in which we live. By examining wide-ranging and diverse representations found in art, nature, physics, economics, history, science, music, medicine, and many other subjects, the study of proportion uncovers the natural patterns that are used to create everything in the material world. Proportion is not only a question of numbers. Nor is it a simple comparison of measurements and dimensions in relation to a whole. According to Plato, the definition of proportion is the transition from duality to unity. It's the investigation of how elements and patterns are connected and interconnected across disciplines. It's the investigation of how we, as humans, perceive those patterns through our senses, as well as through our intuition. It's also an exploration of how universal proportions guide our understanding of creation and the dynamic dance between order and chaos. 

Throughout the course of known human history, the knowledge of proportions and sacred geometry in particular, has been applied across many civilizations for thousands of years. The sophisticated knowledge of sacred geometry, especially the golden ratio, was considered highly advanced and closely related to secretive spiritual wisdom and religious traditions. As a result, its use was controlled, because it was thought that it's misuse might have undesirable consequences. In the Western world, the knowledge of sacred geometry was so secret that it was intentionally guarded for hundreds of years and may have been purposefully forgotten or discarded. 

What was known? How was this knowledge used in the past? How can it help us to understand the world around us today? As an exhibition, the aim of PROPORTIO is to re-start a contemporary dialogue surrounding the lost knowledge of proportions and sacred geometry. 

PROPORTIO features specially commissioned artworks by contemporary artists, 20th century masterpieces, Old Master paintings, archaeological artifacts, as well as architectural models and a large library of historical books on proportions. All these works provide a lens to help us see what proportion can teach us about the essential design of the present and how we can use this knowledge to create a blueprint for the future. This exhibition is an opportunity to explore universal proportions and an invitation to reflect upon the interconnectedness of our universe. 

Axel and May Vervoordt Foundation

Experiments with Truth: Gandhi and Images of Nonviolence, Crescent Museum, Geneva, Switzerland
April 15, 2015 – January 3, 2016


Nonviolence immediately calls to mind a face, a smile, an easily recognizable figure: Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1927 Gandhi published an autobiography entitled “My experiments with truth.” The title refers to satyagraha, the “force of truth,” the cornerstone of civil disobedience that he championed and exemplified throughout his life. A milestone of nonviolent thought and action, Gandhi’s life story was the natural choice for the guiding principle and title of an exhibition on the art of nonviolence.

Gandhi’s personal, spiritual, ethical and political journey is illustrated in its entire complexity through a large number of documents, which include a remarkable series of photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson. The exhibition also reveals, however, the extent of his legacy: Experiments with Truth presents nonviolence as a powerful inspirational force in the visual arts. With around one hundred items on display, the exhibition initiates a dialogue between cultures, the arts and techniques: tantric paintings, Koran parchments, Jain sculptures, Byzantine icons. Contemporary artists such as Marlene Dumas, Dan Flavin, Amar Kanwar, Kimsooja, Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ai Weiwei also take up the messages of nonviolence.

Experiments with Truth. Gandhi and Images of Nonviolence is organized by The Menil Collection, Houston.

Red Crescent Museum, Geneva

We are proud to announce that KIMSOOA is awarded the HO-AM PRIZE 2015 IN ARTS (Ho-Am Foundation in Seoul).

We congratulate Kimsooja for this deserving prize and recognition.

The Prize Award Ceremony will take place on 1 June 2015, at 3:00 pm, at Ho-Am Art Hall, in Seoul.
For further information please visit: http://hoamprize.samsungfoundation.org/eng/award/thisyear.asp

PROPORTIO, Axel and May Vervoordt Foundation, Palazzo Fortuni, Venice
May 9 – November 22, 2015


The exhibition PROPORTIO examines the role that proportion plays in our lives and the complex universe in which we live. By examining wide-ranging and diverse representations found in art, nature, physics, economics, history, science, music, medicine, and many other subjects, the study of proportion uncovers the natural patterns that are used to create everything in the material world.
Proportion is not only a question of numbers. Nor is it a simple comparison of measurements and dimensions in relation to a whole. According to Plato, the definition of proportion is the transition from duality to unity. It's the investigation of how elements and patterns are connected and interconnected across disciplines. It's the investigation of how we, as humans, perceive those patterns through our senses, as well as through our intuition. It's also an exploration of how universal proportions guide our understanding of creation and the dynamic dance between order and chaos.

Throughout the course of known human history, the knowledge of proportions and sacred geometry in particular, has been applied across many civilizations for thousands of years. The sophisticated knowledge of sacred geometry, especially the golden ratio, was considered highly advanced and closely related to secretive spiritual wisdom and religious traditions. As a result, its use was controlled, because it was thought that it's misuse might have undesirable consequences. In the Western world, the knowledge of sacred geometry was so secret that it was intentionally guarded for hundreds of years and may have been purposefully forgotten or discarded.

What was known? How was this knowledge used in the past? How can it help us to understand the world around us today? As an exhibition, the aim of PROPORTIO is to re-start a contemporary dialogue surrounding the lost knowledge of proportions and sacred geometry.

PROPORTIO features specially commissioned artworks by contemporary artists, 20th century masterpieces, Old Master paintings, archaeological artefacts, as well as architectural models and a large library of historical books on proportions.  All these works provide a lens to help us see what proportion can teach us about the essential design of the present and how we can use this knowledge to create a blueprint for the future. This exhibition is an opportunity to explore universal proportions and an invitation to reflect upon the interconnectedness of our universe.


LIST OF PARTICIPATING ARTIST
Marina Abramovic, Carla Accardi, Josef Albers, Carl Andre, Rodolfo Aricò, Ida Barbarigo, Massimo Bartolini, Domenico Bianchi, Cristiano Bianchin, Alberto Biasi, Bae Bien-U, Alighiero Boetti, Otto Boll, Agostino Bonalumi, Michaël Borremans, Sandro Botticelli, Lucia Bru, Markus Brunetti, Jean-Marie Bytebier, Pierpaolo Calzolari, Francesco Candeloro, Antonio Canova, Vincenzo Castella, Eduardo Chillida, Chang-Sup Chung, Niccolò Codazzi, Viviano Codazzi, Gianni Colombo, Dadamaino, Hanne Darboven, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Raoul De Keyser, Riccardo De Marchi, Marta Dell'Angelo, Gabriele Devecchi, Maurizio Donzelli, Jan  Dries, Arthur Duff, Luciano Fabro, Philippe Favier, Giorgia Fiorio, Henri Foucault, Anne-Karin Furunes, Alberto Giacometti, Ando Gilardi, Fernanda Gomes, Antony Gormley, Kees Goudzwaard, Gotthard Graubner, Aldo Grazzi, Franco Guerzoni, Chong Hyun Ha, Erwin Heerich, Michael Heizer, Samantha Holmes, Sadaharu Horio, Akiko Horio, Ryoji Ikeda, Norio Imai, Robert Indiana, Ann Veronica Janssens, Francesco Jodice, Ilya et Emilia Kabakov, Anish Kapoor, Ellsworth Kelly, William Kentridge, Anselm Kiefer, Kimsooja, Harry Kivijärvi, Susan Kleinberg, Wolfgang Laib, Edoardo Landi, Le Corbusier, Sol Lewitt, Richard Long, Nino Longobardi, Heinz Mack, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Christian Megert, Richard Meier, Fausto Melotti, Marisa Merz, Mario Merz, Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio Morandi, François Morellet, Shuji Mukai, Rei Naito, Yuko Nasaka, Shirin Neshat, Louise Nevelson, Ben Nicholson, Renato Nicolodi, Mario Nigro, Gioberto Noro, Hans Op de Beeck, Marie Orensanz, Mimmo Paladino, Pablo Palazuelo, Izhar Patkin, Masaomi Raku, Kurt Ralske, Robert Ryman, Lucio Saffaro, Fred Sandback, Giuseppe Santomaso, Tomás Saraceno, MariaTeresa Sartori, Stéphane Sautour, Nobuo Sekine, Conrad Shawcross, Yasuhiro Shimakawa, Kazuo Shiraga, Gabriel Sierra, David Simpson, Bosco Sodi, Ettore Spalletti, Dominique Stroobant, Takis, Antoni Tàpies, Marco Tirelli, Gunther Uecker, Camiel Van Breedam, Koen Van den Broek, Dom Hans Van der Laan, Koen Vanmechelen, Grazia Varisco, Victor Vasarely, Jef Verheyen, Nanda Vigo, Bill Viola, Rachel Whiteread, Maaria Wirkkala, Hyong-Keun Yun, Gianfranco Zappettini and Raphaël Zarka.

Axel and May Vervoordt Foundation

Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
April 30 – June 13, 2015


Axel Vervoordt Gallery is pleased to announce Kimsooja's first exhibition in our gallery in Antwerp presenting her most recent film and installation Thread Routes - Chapter III. This film and installation will make its Belgium premiere. The screening will be accompanied for the first time with a new experimental video that depicts the lightwaves of the film, as well as an installation of Indian block printing-table covers that the artist collected for this exhibition.

Thread Routes: Chapter lll (2010) is the third installment of the six-chapter film series produced by multidisciplinary conceptual artist Kimsooja (°1957, Daegu, Korea). The films were shot in different continents and reveal the artist gazing at the intimate link between each region's textile culture and its people, gender relations, architecture, nature and agriculture. These non-narrative films invite the viewer into a realm that explores the boundaries of poetry and visual anthropology.

Thread Routes: Chapter lll was filmed in India in 2012. It features traditional dyeing, knitting, embroidery, block printing, and tattooing; the archeological sites and the temporary dwellings belonging to nomadic communities in the state of Gujarat; as well as two landmarks of Indian architecture: the Queen's Stepwell and the Modhera Sun Temple, near the city of Ahmedabad.

For this exhibition at Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Kimsooja has collected the under layers of the block print tables where Indian workers have repeatedly stamped patterns of indigo ink. These textiles bear the marks of repetitive labor and their patterns exposing an intricate layer of ink that ties to the artist's early experiments with painting. The intimate relationship between these acts of labor and the patterns of the fabrics parallels the carved stones of archeological sites filmed in Thread Routes- Chapter lll, and also recall Kimsooja's previous laundry installations and film-work shot in Mumbai called "Mumbai: A Laundery Field." The sound track of the film's protagonists in the act of printing and stamping echoes throughout the installation, where the light data of the film is digitally woven in a new experimental video piece composed of spectral lightwaves.

Thread Routes reveals how the artist gazes at the world: unfolding visual patterns that intimately tie humans to their land. Kimsooja investigates questions relating to the human condition such as nomadism, migration, interpersonal relationships, and women's role in society. She also engages her audience with a reflection on the relations of aesthetics and global politics through a system of beliefs that defies mobility and the act of making. All these themes are present in her multidisciplinary art practice, which includes performance, video, photography, drawing, sculpture, and site-specific installations, that are all linked towards their relational use of light and sound.

Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
Curated by Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya
March 12 – July 12, 2015


From March 12 through July 12, 2015, Kimsooja's Thread Routes will make its Spanish premiere at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, becoming the fourth installation showcased in the Museum's Film & Video gallery. The gallery opened in 2014 and is dedicated to video art, video installation, and the moving image.
 
Thread Routes (2010–) is a 16-mm film series produced by multidisciplinary conceptual artist Kimsooja (b. 1957, Daegu, Korea). This six chapter project functions as an epic poem that closely contemplates the handiwork of weavers as the seminal structure of all that is labored, built, imagined and witnessed through the artist's silent gaze. The three chapters from the series showing at Guggenheim Bilbao were shot on three different continents and reveal the artist's fascination with the unfolding of space, the piercing gesture of the weaving hands as the genesis of agriculture, architecture and gender relations. These non-narrative films invite the viewer into a realm of poetry and visual anthropology, and carry out Kimsooja's earlier meditations on sewing and wrapping.
 
A site-specific triangular installation was created by the artist for the Guggenheim Bilbao, and will feature the first three chapters of the six-chapter-long series, filmed in Peru, Europe, and India, respectively. The first film, shot in 2010, follows weavers from the Sacred Valley of the Incas in the Peruvian Andes to the villages of Taquile Island, and quietly unfolds the immensity of the mountainous land as a possible man-made patchwork. The second chapter, filmed in 2011, focuses on the handcrafting of bobbin lace in Bruges, Belgium; Lepoglava, Pag and Hvar, Croatia; Burano, Italy; as well as the industrial lace production in Calais, a town in northern France. These images of European lacemakers are paralleled to architectural structures such as the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic; the Eiffel Tower in Paris; the Milan Cathedral; and the Alhambra in Granada, with its Islamic geometric motifs. The third chapter was filmed in India in 2012 and features traditional dyeing, knitting, embroidery, block printing, and tattooing, intercut with images of archeological sites and the temporary dwellings belonging to nomadic communities in the state of Gujarat; as well as two landmarks of Indian architecture: the Queen's Stepwell and the Modhera Sun Temple, near the city of Ahmedabad.
 
Thread Routes reveals how the artist gazes at the world: unfolding patterns that intimately tie humans to their land. The series' remaining three chapters will feature the Miao, Tong, and Yi minorities in China, and the native tribes of North America and Northern Africa.
 
Kimsooja for the last thirty years has investigated questions relating to exile and migration, interpersonal relationships within a global network, and women's role in society. She also engages her audience through a body of performances that defies mobility and the act of making. All these themes are present in her multidisciplinary art practice, which includes performance, video, photography, drawing, sculpture, and site-specific installations, that are all linked through their relational use of light and sound.

Thread Routes stands as the artist's ultimate worldview. One that unites anthropology and animism, human and non-human forms, and brings a highly attentive gaze to the manifold that inhabits the movement of all that ties and animates the fabric of our world.

View More Installation Images Here

Guggenheim Bilbao

Sala Orive, Cordoba, Spain
Curated by Oliva Maria Rubio
March 14 – May 17, 2015

In the video installation Earth-Water-Fire-Air, 2009-2010, Kimsooja addresses four elements, used by various philosophers since ancient times, the last designated entities that constitute the material reality, both Western and Eastern tradition: earth, water, fire, air, as a source of energy and life. Always linked to a symbolic, these four elements, dating from the time of the Presocratics, receiving its most precise formulation Empedocles, persist through the Middle Ages to the Modern Era, profoundly influencing culture and European thought . Also coincide with the Indian and Japanese traditions, which, as did Aristotle added a fifth element, ether (or continent cosmos), and the Buddhist tradition. In some Asian countries such as Korea or China, wind replaces the air.
The six videos that make up the installation, which are titled Fuego de Tierra / Fire of Earth, Agua de Tierra / Water of Earth, Fuego de Aire / Fire of Air, Tierra de Agua / Earth of Water, Aire de Fuego / Air of Fire, and Aire de Tierra / Air of Earth, were filmed on the island of Lanzarote in 2009. In nature and oceanic volcanic island, the artist has found strength and inspiration from these elements, the energy that is: elements of life, we depend on all living beings, but also invitation to fantasy, source of activity creator. Kimsooja makes us see fire in the water, land on water, wind in the water and therefore also the opposite: water in the wind, water in the soil, water on the fire. In a way, as the artist says, the water would suffice to represent the four elements even though you might think that each of these elements only supports a single and separate representation.

The exhibition is complemented by a series entitled The Sun Unfolded, 2008, a set of 6 photographs in which the sun displays the color spectrum light rays extending in concentric waves around.

Cordoba

La Fabrica

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, Geneva, Switzerland
April 15, 2015 – January 3, 2016


Nonviolence immediately calls to mind a face, a smile, an easily recognizable figure: Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1927 Gandhi published an autobiography entitled "My experiments with truth." The title refers to satyagraha, the "force of truth," the cornerstone of civil disobedience that he championed and exemplified throughout his life. A milestone of nonviolent thought and action, Gandhi's life story was the natural choice for the guiding principle and title of an exhibition on the art of nonviolence.

Gandhi's personal, spiritual, ethical and political journey is illustrated in its entire complexity through a large number of documents, which include a remarkable series of photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson. The exhibition also reveals, however, the extent of his legacy: Experiments with Truth presents nonviolence as a powerful inspirational force in the visual arts. With around one hundred items on display, the exhibition initiates a dialogue between cultures, the arts and techniques: tantric paintings, Koran parchments, Jain sculptures, Byzantine icons. Contemporary artists such as Marlene Dumas, Dan Flavin, Amar Kanwar, Kimsooja, Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ai Weiwei also take up the messages of nonviolence.

Experiments with Truth. Gandhi and Images of Nonviolence is organized by The Menil Collection, Houston.

TheMenil Collection

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum

Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
Curated by Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya
March 12 – July 12, 2015


From March 12 through July 12, 2015, Kimsooja's Thread Routes will make its Spanish premiere at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, becoming the fourth installation showcased in the Museum's Film & Video gallery. The gallery opened in 2014 and is dedicated to video art, video installation, and the moving image.
 
Thread Routes (2010–) is a 16-mm film series produced by multidisciplinary conceptual artist Kimsooja (b. 1957, Daegu, Korea). This six chapter project functions as an epic poem that closely contemplates the handiwork of weavers as the seminal structure of all that is labored, built, imagined and witnessed through the artist's silent gaze. The three chapters from the series showing at Guggenheim Bilbao were shot on three different continents and reveal the artist's fascination with the unfolding of space, the piercing gesture of the weaving hands as the genesis of agriculture, architecture and gender relations. These non-narrative films invite the viewer into a realm of poetry and visual anthropology, and carry out Kimsooja's earlier meditations on sewing and wrapping.
 
A site-specific triangular installation was created by the artist for the Guggenheim Bilbao, and will feature the first three chapters of the six-chapter-long series, filmed in Peru, Europe, and India, respectively. The first film, shot in 2010, follows weavers from the Sacred Valley of the Incas in the Peruvian Andes to the villages of Taquile Island, and quietly unfolds the immensity of the mountainous land as a possible man-made patchwork. The second chapter, filmed in 2011, focuses on the handcrafting of bobbin lace in Bruges, Belgium; Lepoglava, Pag and Hvar, Croatia; Burano, Italy; as well as the industrial lace production in Calais, a town in northern France. These images of European lacemakers are paralleled to architectural structures such as the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic; the Eiffel Tower in Paris; the Milan Cathedral; and the Alhambra in Granada, with its Islamic geometric motifs. The third chapter was filmed in India in 2012 and features traditional dyeing, knitting, embroidery, block printing, and tattooing, intercut with images of archeological sites and the temporary dwellings belonging to nomadic communities in the state of Gujarat; as well as two landmarks of Indian architecture: the Queen's Stepwell and the Modhera Sun Temple, near the city of Ahmedabad.
 
Thread Routes reveals how the artist gazes at the world: unfolding patterns that intimately tie humans to their land. The series' remaining three chapters will feature the Miao, Tong, and Yi minorities in China, and the native tribes of North America and Northern Africa.
 
Kimsooja for the last thirty years has investigated questions relating to exile and migration, interpersonal relationships within a global network, and women's role in society. She also engages her audience through a body of performances that defies mobility and the act of making. All these themes are present in her multidisciplinary art practice, which includes performance, video, photography, drawing, sculpture, and site-specific installations, that are all linked through their relational use of light and sound.

Thread Routes stands as the artist's ultimate worldview. One that unites anthropology and animism, human and non-human forms, and brings a highly attentive gaze to the manifold that inhabits the movement of all that ties and animates the fabric of our world.

Guggenheim Bilbao

Sala Orive, Cordoba, Spain
Curated by Oliva Maria Rubio
March 14 – May 17, 2015

The six videos that make up the installation, which are titled Fuego de Tierra / Fire of Earth, Agua de Tierra / Water of Earth, Fuego de Aire / Fire of Air, Tierra de Agua / Earth of Water, Aire de Fuego / Air of Fire, and Aire de Tierra / Air of Earth, were filmed on the island of Lanzarote in 2009. In nature and oceanic volcanic island, the artist has found strength and inspiration from these elements, the energy that is: elements of life, we depend on all living beings, but also invitation to fantasy, source of activity creator. Kimsooja makes us see fire in the water, land on water, wind in the water and therefore also the opposite: water in the wind, water in the soil, water on the fire. In a way, as the artist says, the water would suffice to represent the four elements even though you might think that each of these elements only supports a single and separate representation.

The exhibition is complemented by a series entitled The Sun Unfolded, 2008, a set of 6 photographs in which the sun displays the color spectrum light rays extending in concentric waves around.

Cordoba

La Fabrica

Galerie Tschudi
Zuoz, Switzerland
December 23, 2014 – March 14, 2015


Obangsaek is the Korean color field that represents the nature of the universe. Signifying the four cardinal points and the center, the five colors of Obang (directionality) and Saek (color) draw from the philosophies of the cultures that originally formed the Ural-Altaic linguistic family. The theory of the colors derives from the relationships of Yin and Yang, Confucianism and Taoism. Obangsaek assigns elements of nature, flavors, wishes, desires and characteristics of human nature to each of the colors. Yellow at the center, signifies universe, earth, power and dignity. East (blue) represents wood, spring and happiness. West (white) is metal, autumn, innocence and truthfulness. South (red) is known as the color for summer, fire, creativity and passion. North (black) is water and winter, intelligence and wisdom. The color spectrum presented in this exhibition is a secondary color spectrum associated with the symbolic Obangsaek color field.

Galerie Tschudi is pleased to present To Breathe: Obangsaek by acclaimed multi disciplinary conceptual artist, Kimsooja. The exhibition, which is the artists' second solo at Galerie Tschudi, includes several new works and many others that have never been shown in Europe. To Breathe: Obangsaek explores the artist's ongoing questions as a painter and Obangsaek theory, which has led her to move beyond the surface to the activation of space as an experience of light in such site-specific installations as The Crystal Palace in Madrid, the Korean Pavilion at the 55th Biennale di Venezia and most recently in A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir at Cornell University, New York.

The exhibition title comes from the site-specific installation, To Breathe: Obangsaek which was first realized as part of "The Lift" elevator wallpaper project, organized by Art21 at the Bloomberg building in New York in 2013. In this installation, wallpaper printed with obangsaek pattern envelops the viewer, activating the body as the fifth element of directionality—the center. In other rooms Deductive Object: Obangsaek (2014) carpets—similar to those used in Korean weddings—roll up or stretch out, leading directionality in relation to bodies and their journeys. Similarly, the Seven Wishes (2004) print portfolio translates the cardinal points of Obangsaek into wishes that connect to the sensory and emotional experience of humanity as a symbolic frame of human life.

Moving from an autobiographical approach to reach universality in her use of bedcovers, Kimsooja expands her exploration to a global context in To Breathe - The Flags (2012), as a frame of nationhood that leads to transnational status. In this video piece, 246 national flags dissolve in a continuous loop, their iconic surfaces morphing into one another. In the first iteration of this work, which was commissioned by the IOC Olympic Museum, Lausanne for the 2012 London Olympic Games, the artist layered the flags of all the participating countries in a reflection of the unifying spirit of the games. In To Breathe – The Flags, this proposition is expanded to include all of the world's national flags in alphabetical order without hierarchy or political prejudice, in the hope of creating a visual experience whereby national difference and conflicts can be merged and harmonized as one.

Drawing us back from the symbolic to the essence of humans and life, the video works Fire of Air (2009) and Mirror of Air (2010) are extracts from the artist's explorations of the elemental forces of nature and their relationship of mutual circulation and connection. This powerful presence of matter is questioned by the tiny voids in sand created by crabs' regurgitation on a beach near the Yonggwang nuclear power station, as depicted in the Architecture of Vulnerability (2010-2013) lightbox series. These images of an elemental structure of presence and absence created by nature, recall the relationship of Yin and Yang to the human body, which has been a central concern of Kimsooja's work for many years.

An Album: Hudson Guild (2009) simultaneously evokes a sense of past, present and future through video portraits of elderly people at Hudson Guild Community Center in New York. The figures—who appear at times facing the viewer and at times with backs turned, respond by turning to face the camera when the artist calls their names, recalling the memory of her deceased father.

Deductive Object: Unfolding Bottari (1991-2014) includes 223 images taken by the artist at flea markets around the world. Accumulated, the vulnerability of objects in a moment of transition questions the destination of human desire and that of possession.

All of Kimsooja's investigations are contextualized from the processes of mundane daily acts such as sewing, weaving, wrapping and unfolding that begin with her gaze as a painter and expands towards all possible directionalities.

The multiple directionality of the artist's gaze actively draws the delicate thread that she follows so compellingly in the Thread Routes series. In this series, the films function as a structural investigation into the similarities in performative elements of textile construction and their relationship to nature, architecture, agriculture and gender relationships across cultures and geographic zones.

For the first time in Europe, Kimsooja will present Thread Routes – Chapter II (2011) which is the second in the six part series of films shot on 16mm. Filmed in various European cities, the film depicts a wide variety of lace making techniques, woven together with images of delicate yet grand European structures such as the Duomo in Milan, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora and La Alhambra in Granada. The bold, masculine and power-oriented monumental architectural forms and structures are juxtaposed with the delicate, feminine and ephemeral lace making alongside the structure of local flowers and vegetation.

Since the late 70s, Kimsooja has transformed and redefined the notion of painting into object/sculptural pieces, performance, video, and site-specific sound and light installations. Her innovation has been to question the surface/tableau, self and the other; dealing with existential, natural, cultural and political borders from the concept of obangsaek and its dimensionality with relation to the artist's body in the world; contextualizing her own concepts in parallel to Western art history.


Galerie Tschudi

Chesa Madalena | Somvih 115 | 7524 Zuoz | Switzerland 
 Tel. +41 81 850 13 90 | www.galerie-tschudi.ch

Galerie Tschudi
Zuoz, Switzerland
December 23, 2014 – March 14, 2015

Opening Saturday, December 20, 4 - 6.30pm

     

Obangsaek is the Korean color field that represents the nature of the universe. Signifying the four cardinal points and the center, the five colors of Obang (directionality) and Saek (color) draw from the philosophies of the cultures that originally formed the Ural-Altaic linguistic family. The theory of the colors derives from the relationships of Yin and Yang, Confucianism and Taoism. Obangsaek assigns elements of nature, flavors, wishes, desires and characteristics of human nature to each of the colors. Yellow at the center, signifies universe, earth, power and dignity. East (blue) represents wood, spring and happiness. West (white) is metal, autumn, innocence and truthfulness. South (red) is known as the color for summer, fire, creativity and passion. North (black) is water and winter, intelligence and wisdom. The color spectrum presented in this exhibition is a secondary color spectrum associated with the symbolic Obangsaek color field.

Galerie Tschudi is pleased to present To Breathe: Obangsaek by acclaimed multi disciplinary conceptual artist, Kimsooja. The exhibition, which is the artists' second solo at Galerie Tschudi, includes several new works and many others that have never been shown in Europe. To Breathe: Obangsaek explores the artist's ongoing questions as a painter and Obangsaek theory, which has led her to move beyond the surface to the activation of space as an experience of light in such site-specific installations as The Crystal Palace in Madrid, the Korean Pavilion at the 55th Biennale di Venezia and most recently in A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir at Cornell University, New York.

The exhibition title comes from the site-specific installation, To Breathe: Obangsaek which was first realized as part of "The Lift" elevator wallpaper project, organized by Art21 at the Bloomberg building in New York in 2013. In this installation, wallpaper printed with obangsaek pattern envelops the viewer, activating the body as the fifth element of directionality—the center. In other rooms Deductive Object: Obangsaek (2014) carpets—similar to those used in Korean weddings—roll up or stretch out, leading directionality in relation to bodies and their journeys. Similarly, the Seven Wishes (2004) print portfolio translates the cardinal points of Obangsaek into wishes that connect to the sensory and emotional experience of humanity as a symbolic frame of human life.

Moving from an autobiographical approach to reach universality in her use of bedcovers, Kimsooja expands her exploration to a global context in To Breathe - The Flags (2012), as a frame of nationhood that leads to transnational status. In this video piece, 246 national flags dissolve in a continuous loop, their iconic surfaces morphing into one another. In the first iteration of this work, which was commissioned by the IOC Olympic Museum, Lausanne for the 2012 London Olympic Games, the artist layered the flags of all the participating countries in a reflection of the unifying spirit of the games. In To Breathe – The Flags, this proposition is expanded to include all of the world's national flags in alphabetical order without hierarchy or political prejudice, in the hope of creating a visual experience whereby national difference and conflicts can be merged and harmonized as one.

Drawing us back from the symbolic to the essence of humans and life, the video works Fire of Air (2009) and Mirror of Air (2010) are extracts from the artist's explorations of the elemental forces of nature and their relationship of mutual circulation and connection. This powerful presence of matter is questioned by the tiny voids in sand created by crabs' regurgitation on a beach near the Yonggwang nuclear power station, as depicted in the Architecture of Vulnerability (2010-2013) lightbox series. These images of an elemental structure of presence and absence created by nature, recall the relationship of Yin and Yang to the human body, which has been a central concern of Kimsooja's work for many years.

An Album: Hudson Guild(2009) simultaneously evokesa sense of past, present andfuture through videoportraits of elderly peopleat Hudson Guild CommunityCenter in New York. Thefigures—who appear at timesfacing the viewer and attimes with backs turned,respond by turning to facethe camera when the artistcalls their names, recallingthe memory of her deceasedfather.

Deductive Object: Unfolding Bottari(1991-2014) includes 223images taken by the artistat flea markets around theworld. Accumulated, thevulnerability of objects ina moment of transitionquestions the destination ofhuman desire and that ofpossession.

All of Kimsooja's investigations are contextualized from the processes of mundane daily acts such as sewing, weaving, wrapping and unfolding that begin with her gaze as a painter and expands towards all possible directionalities.

The multiple directionality of the artist's gaze actively draws the delicate thread that she follows so compellingly in the Thread Routes series. In this series, the films function as a structural investigation into the similarities in performative elements of textile construction and their relationship to nature, architecture, agriculture and gender relationships across cultures and geographic zones.

For the first time in Europe, Kimsooja will present Thread Routes – Chapter II (2011) which is the second in the six part series of films shot on 16mm. Filmed in various European cities, the film depicts a wide variety of lace making techniques, woven together with images of delicate yet grand European structures such as the Duomo in Milan, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora and La Alhambra in Granada. The bold, masculine and power-oriented monumental architectural forms and structures are juxtaposed with the delicate, feminine and ephemeral lace making alongside the structure of local flowers and vegetation.

Since the late 70s, Kimsooja has transformed and redefined the notion of painting into object/sculptural pieces, performance, video, and site-specific sound and light installations. Her innovation has been to question the surface/tableau, self and the other; dealing with existential, natural, cultural and political borders from the concept of obangsaek and its dimensionality with relation to the artist's body in the world; contextualizing her own concepts in parallel to Western art history.

Galerie Tschudi

Chesa Madalena | Somvih 115 | 7524 Zuoz | Switzerland 
 Tel. +41 81 850 13 90 | www.galerie-tschudi.ch

La Fabrica, Madrid, Spain

February 4 – April 6, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'Encounter – Looking into Sewing' (1998-2013), 'Deductive Object' (1996-2013), 'To Breathe: Invisible Needle/Invisible Mirror' (2007), and 'The Sun Unfolded' (2008)

In 'Kimsooja - Bottaris', the artist presents four bodies of work, each of which approach the concept of bottari and its relationship both to Obangsaek color field and to the tension surrounding the performative figure. Signifying four cardinal points and the center, the theory of the Korean color field known as Obangsaek, draws from the relationships of Yin and Yang, Shamanism and Taoism. In this group of works, Obangsaek is unfolded in relation to the dynamic presence/absence of the performing body.

From the hidden bodies of the 'Encounter - Looking into Sewing' and 'Deductive Object' photographs, to the implied body of architectural space in 'To Breathe: Invisible Needle/Invisible Mirror' and the celestial body of 'The Sun Unfolded', the works in Kimsooja - Bottaris explore the movement from surface to spirit across three distinct but related physical realms.

Galarie La Fabrica

Museo Naval, Columbia
Curated by Berta Sichel
February 7 – April 7, 2014

Kimsooja will present'Thread Routes - Chapter I'.

The Biennial is created withthe idea of furtherenhancing Cartagena as acenter for the arts by
incorporating the visualarts along with the existingpresence of music,literature, and film, andother
cultural manifestationsalready emblematic to thecity, for the culturalenrichment of the community.

BIACI

September 18 - October 2, 2014
Wednesday - Sunday
in The Lab, The Drawing Center

Korean artist Kimsooja premieres the first in a series of six 16mm films that document the performative elements of varied forms of indigenous textile construction. Thread Routes - Chapter I, 2010 explores the Peruvian weaving culture set amid the highlands of Machu Picchu.

Main Exhibition dates:
September 19 - December 14th, 2014

New York – The Drawing Center presents Thread Lines, September 19–December 14, 2014, a group exhibition that disabuses the tradition of drawing as simply putting pen to paper, framing it instead as an open-ended act in which lines can be woven, stitched, even embodied. Spanning the period from the mid-1960s to the present, Thread Lines features sixteen artists who engage sewing, stitching, and weaving to create works that activate the expressive and conceptual potential of line and illuminate affinities between the mediums of textile and drawing. For some artists, line functions as a direct extension of the body—a performative act or participatory event. Others work in abstraction; and still others use line as a means of addressing personal narrative, gender identity, and politics. Multi-generational in scope, Thread Lines brings together those pioneers who first unraveled the distinction between textile and art with a new wave of practitioners who have inherited and expanded upon their groundbreaking gestures. Curated by Joanna Kleinberg Romanow, Assistant Curator.

Participating Artists: Mónica Bengoa (b. 1969, Santiago, Chile), Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911, Paris, France–d. 2010, New York, NY), Sheila Hicks (b. 1934, Hastings, NE), Ellen Lesperance (b. 1971, Minneapolis, MN), Kimsooja (b. 1957, Taegu, Korea), Beryl Korot (b. 1945, New York, NY), Maria Lai (b. 1919, Ulassai, Sardinia–d. 2013, Cardedu, Sardinia), Sam Moyer (b. 1983, Chicago, IL), William J. O'Brien (b. 1975, Eastlake, OH), Robert Otto Epstein (b. 1979, Pittsburgh, PA), Jessica Rankin (b. 1971, Sydney, Australia), Elaine Reichek (b. 1943, New York, NY), Drew Shiflett (b. 1951, Chicago, IL), Alan Shields (b. 1944, Herington, KS–d. 2005, Shelter Island, NY), Lenore Tawney (b. 1907, Lorain, OH–d. 2007, New York, NY), and Anne Wilson (b. 1949, Detroit, MI).

PUBLIC PROGRAM
Thursday, September 25 at 6:30pm
An evening walkthrough of Thread Lines with Curator, Joanna Kleinberg Romanow and participating artists Robert Otto Epstein, Sam Moyer, Jessica Rankin, Elaine Reicheck, and Drew Shiflett.

PUBLICATION
To accompany Thread Lines The Drawing Center will produce an edition in the Drawing Papers series, featuring color illustrations of the artworks and an essay by the exhibition's curator.
View Catalogue here
Purchase Catalogue here

LIMTED EDITION PRINT
In honor of the exhibition, New York-based artist Jessica Rankin has created a limited edition print, fabricated by Richloom Fabrics Group and Solo Impression. The print is an edition of five and will retail for $1,500. All proceeds will benefit The Drawing Center.

CREDITS
Thread Lines is made possible by the support of Richloom Fabrics Group, Fiona and Eric Rudin, Daniel Romanow, The Capital Group, the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, Ambach & Rice, Galería Isabel Aninat, and Lesley Heller.

ABOUT THE DRAWING CENTER
The Drawing Center is the only not-for-profit fine arts institution in the country to focus solely on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary. It was established in 1977 to provide opportunities for emerging and under-recognized artists; to demonstrate the significance and diversity of drawings throughout history; and to stimulate public dialogue on issues of art and culture.

LOCATION, HOURS & ACCESSIBILITY
35 Wooster Street between Broome and Grand Streets in SoHo, New York. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Sunday 12pm–6pm, Thursday, 12pm–8pm. Tickets: $5 Adults, $3 Students and seniors, Children under 12 are free, and free admission Thursdays 6-8pm.
The Drawing Center is wheelchair accessible.

Kimsooja, A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir, 2014, steel, custom acrylic panel, laminated polymer film, circular mirror, 46' x 4.5' (diameter) with collaboration from Jaeho Chong (architect), Professor Ulrich Wiesner (materials science and engineering), photo by Ferdinand Kohle, Commissioned by Cornell Council for the Arts, Ithaca, New York, Courtesy of Cornell Council for the Arts, Ithaca, New York, and Kimsooja Studio

2014, 46 x 4.5 ft (diameter)
Steel, custom acrylic panel, laminated polymer film, circular mirror


Intimate Cosmologies: The Aesthetics of Scale in an Age of Nanotechnology
Arts Quad, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Curated by Stephanie Owens (Visiting Assistant Professor, Studio Art; Director, Cornell Council for the Art)

September 15 – December 22, 2014
Daylight hours until dusk; Appointment necessary for view inside. Contact cca@cornell.edu for viewing times.


Artist Talk: The Dimensions of a Needle
Thursday September 18 (5.30pm – 7pm)
For reservations click here

Opening Reception: Friday September 19 (5pm - 7pm)

Panel Discussion: Friday September 19 (10:30am)
Kimsooja in conversation with Professor Ulrich Wiesner of Cornell's Department of Material Science and Engineering, curator Stephanie Owens, and architect Jaeho Chong.

click here for more images

As part of the 2014 CCA biennale Intimate Cosmologies: The Aesthetics of Scale in an Age of Nanotechnology, Korean-born conceptual multi media artist, Kimsooja has been commissioned to create a new work in collaboration with the Wiesner Nanomaterials Lab at Cornell University.

Inspired by the perspectival direction of nanotechnology and French philosopher Henri Bergson's thoughts on memory as related to metaphysical perception, Kimsooja explores the notion of the needlepoint as an intersection between distance and memory threading across a cosmic scale.

'A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir' is a 46 feet high, 4.5 feet diameter needle-shaped steel structure made for an intimate exterior and interior experience. The structure's grid-like, sleek, volumetric spine is fleshed out with acrylic panels to form a crystalline, transparent pavilion when seen directly. At a raking light, each of the panels, which have been individually treated with an iridescent nanopolymer, transforms the transparent pavilion into a radiant spectrum with color as the polymer refracts various wavelengths of natural light dependent on the angle from which it is viewed.

Created in close collaboration between Kimsooja, architect Jaeho Chong, and Cornell nanomaterial engineer and chemical scientist Ulrich Wiesner, the pavilion is treated with a molecularly engineered nano polymer that is precisely structured to maximize the refractive qualities of natural light. Similar to iridescence that occurs in nature on the wings of butterflies or shell of beetles, the color of the pavilion is physically interactive, where the blue, red, orange, pink, yellow, green, violet and other spectral colors appear as a radiant glitch in the fabric of reality. The interior floor of the structure is mirrored, doubling its scale and light effects so that it appears to extend simultaneously into earth and sky with the viewer caught somewhere at the threshold between the two realms. While the announcement of earth as a 'souvenir' in the title suggests an object or gift, the idea of Earth as a readymade or readyused object functions as an aperture through which to view Kimsooja's artistic evolution. Expanding from the notion of needle as form and concept, this project addresses the needlepoint as both a void and a point of departure in time and space on an architectural scale.

By presenting a morphological form that assimilates the perspective of scale at the heart of nanoscientific practice as well as perspective in art and the universe, the artist aims to explore the possible shapes and points of view that reveal the invisible as visible, physical as immaterial, and vice versa. 'A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir' is a continuation of Kimsooja's decades long exploration of the concept of the needle and the notion of bottari, both of which have been explored in a number of site-specific projects, most recently in the Korean Pavilion in the Biennale di Venezia, 2013.


Collaborators: Jaeho Chong (Architect); Professor Ulrich Wiesner (Materials Science & Engineering); and Wiesner Group researchers: Hiroaki Sai, PhD (Materials Science & Engineering); and Ferdinand Kohle (graduate student, Chemistry and Chemical Biology); Professor Erik P. Eshelman (Architectural Engineering)

CCABiennale

Arts Quad, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Curated by Stephanie Owens (Professor of multi disciplinary studies, art & architecture)

September 15 – December 22, 2014
Daylight hours until dusk; Appointment necessary for view inside.
Contact cca@cornell.edu for viewing times.

Kimsooja will present 'A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir' (2014)

As part of the 2014 CCA biennale Intimate Cosmologies: The Aesthetics of Scale in an Age of Nanotechnology, Korean-born conceptual multi media artist, Kimsooja has been commissioned to create a new work in collaboration with the Nanoscience lab at Cornell University.

'A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir' is a 46 feet high, 4.5 feet diameter needle-shaped steel structure made for an intimate exterior and interior experience. The structure's grid-like, sleek, volumetric spine is fleshed out with acrylic panels to form a crystalline, transparent pavilion when seen directly. At a raking light, each of the panels, which have been individually treated with an iridescent nanopolymer, transforms the transparent pavilion into a radiant spectrum with color as the polymer refracts various wavelengths of natural light dependent on the angle from which it is viewed.

Artist Talk: The Dimensions of a Needle
Thursday September 18 (5.30pm – 7pm)
For reservations click here

Opening Reception: Friday September 19 (6pm - 8pm)

Panel Discussion: Friday September 19 (11am)
Kimsooja in conversation with Professor Ulrich Wiesner of Cornell's Department of Material Science and Engineering, curator Stephanie Owens, and architect Jaeho Chong

Collaborators: Jaeho Chong (Architect); Professor Ulrich Wiesner (Materials Science & Engineering); and Wiesner Group researchers: Hiroaki Sai, PhD (Materials Science & Engineering); and Ferdinand Kohle (graduate student, Chemistry and Chemical Biology); Professor Erik P. Eshelman (Architectural Engineering)

CCA Biennale

Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan, Italy
September 24 – November 13, 2014

Kimsooja will present works from the 'To Breathe' lightbox series (2013) alongside the photographic series 'The Sun - Unfolded' (2008).

The 'To Breathe' lightbox series (2013) are based on images created during the 55th Biennale di Venezia, where Kimsooja represented Korea with a site-specific project entitled 'To Breathe: Bottari'. Approaching the architecture of the Korean Pavilion as a bottari, the artist wrapped the division between nature and the interior space with a translucent diffraction grating film, accompanied by an anechoic dark room that completely transformed the space into an experiential and transcendental environment in which the audience was invited to be the live and active performers.

Presented alongside the lightboxes, 'The Sun - Unfolded', which was created in Goa, India in 2008, is a series of large scale photographs depicting circles of spectral color taking shape in concentric waves around the sun.

Together these two distinct bodies of work explore the natural phenomenon of light and darkness that evoke distinct visual extremes which are connected as part of a whole. Rendered as lightboxes, the 'To Breathe' works further investigate the architecture of color through surface, reflection and abstraction, while 'The Sun - Unfolded' explores form and color reminiscent of a mandala or the sun as a breathing body.

Galleria Raffaella Cortese

2013
LED video projection in HD format
11:02 loop
Silent

Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program of the U.S. General Services Administration in 2010, Kimsooja has created a poignant site-specific artwork for the Mariposa Land Port of Entry.

One of the busiest land ports in the United States, Mariposa serves as the main port of entry for fresh produce entering the United States from Mexico and facilitates over 23 million visitor border crossings every year.

On this border, Kimsooja has installed a large LED screen directly on the borderline, above the revolving door at the first pedestrian entry to US territory. Both marking the site and emphasizing the concept of borderlines, the screen plays a new video work created especially for this specific location and community.

Filmed in Nogales in 2013, An Album: Borderlines consists of silent video portraits of community members who live with the daily reality of the borderline, commuting between both countries. The portraits show each individual in three different positions: facing the viewer, facing away, and turning back towards the viewer. These three distinctive postures represent the individuals' journeys through their past, present and future. The figures facing the camera suggest arrival/encounter, whereas those same figures facing away from the camera evoke departure/separation. The artist provoked the action of turning back towards the viewer by calling the name of each individual during filming, offering the opportunity to re-enter the memory of a reality left behind. Throughout all of the portraits, the subtle changes in facial expressions suggest interior, psychological journeys.

Kimsooja conceived of this video as a group portrait of the current social and cultural landscapes of the United States—a country of immigrants, while addressing the sensitive and harsh reality of the borderline between the US and Mexico. As the artwork's title suggests, this video album of portraits addresses many different types of borderlines: physical, psychological, geographical, political, and cultural.

In a poetic reflection on the concept of the work, the screen itself performed the gesture of the individuals it depicts and asks the viewers who pass beneath it to do the same. In order to observe the rhythmically changing video portraits, visitors passing across the border from Mexico to the US will mimic the gestures of the figures on the screen by turning back to look over their shoulder, perhaps prompting them to reflect on their own personal, interior journeys. By presenting real portraits of the people of Nogales, Kimsooja's artwork bears witness and embraces the many hopes, joys, desires, memories, challenges and destinies that constitute a vibrant immigrant society.

Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
2010 – 2013

GSA

Busan Museum of Modern Art, Busan, Korea
Curated by Olivier Kaeppelin
September 20 – November 22, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'To Breathe: Mandala' (2010) mixed media sound installation

The main exhibition, curated by Olivier Kaeppelin, and titled Inhabiting the World, will be opened at the Busan Museum of Art. Kaeppelin claims that artists may have more efficient, sustainable analysis and alterations for various social issues and transformations than experts of a certain field or academics would do. In this light, as he adds, Inhabiting the World implies active attitudes and liveliness towards the world as well as willingness to respond to the world as well as change it, which resemble the characteristics of the city of Busan. By exhibiting art pieces that could constitute evidences of the contemporaneity and implement the future, Kaeppelin would like to represent the consciousness that still remains in contemporary art and artists during the most incongruent, incoherent time of the most materialist society.

Busan Biennale

Busan Museum of Modern Art, Busan, Korea
Curated by Lee Kensu
September 20 – November 22, 2014

Kimsooja will present an image slideshow of her participation in 40 biennales all over the world throughout the course of her career.

The "Biennale Archive" exhibition, titled Voyage to Biennale - 50 years of Contemporary Korean Art in Overseas Biennales—will be curated by Lee Kenshu (the previous editor in chief of Monthly Art). Bringing together leading Korean artists’ works, Biennale Archive will exhibit artworks that may represent the new contemporary. This archive exhibition will survey the biennale history from Biennale de Paris and exhibit the related references chronologically, which will become a great opportunity to see the modern history of Korean art becoming radically international.

Busan Biennale

The Drawing Center, New York, USA
Curated by Joanna Kleinberg Romanow
September 18 - October 2, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'Thread Routes - Chapter 1' (2010) video projection

This group exhibition disabuses the idea that drawing is simply putting pen to paper, framing it instead as an open-ended act in which lines can be woven, stitched, knit, even embodied. Featuring sixteen contemporary artists who use textile in a variety of formats (embroidery, weaving, collage, and performance), the exhibition highlights the expressive and conceptual possibilities of line, with an emphasis on its making. The works selected invoke many characteristics long associated with the drawn medium; however, the application of textile brings forth a new hybridity in which the objects created, using the techniques and materials drawn from craft, result in lines detached from the picture plane, lines read on an unprecedentedly large scale, and lines that extend into real space—a collective, social space. For some artists, the line functions as a direct extension of the body—a performative act or participatory event. Others work in abstraction; still others use the line as a means of addressing gender, personal narrative, and politics. While this exhibition is necessarily limited in scope, it reflects a widespread tendency that has developed over decades and continues to propel the drawn medium forward.

The Drawing Center

The Menil Collection, Houston, USA
Curated by Josef Helfenstein
October 3 - January 11, 2015

Kimsooja will present 'A Needle Woman' (2005) video projection

Experiments with Truth: Gandhi and Images of Nonviolence is the first international project to explore the resonance of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s (1867-1948) ethics of non-violence, or “satyagraha”, in the visual arts. This exhibition presents approximately 130 works spanning several centuries and includes paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, sculptures, rare books, and films by artists from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The exhibition’s themes echo the expansive humanitarian concerns of the Menil Collection’s founders, John and Dominique de Menil. Following their example, we aim to create a platform for international conversation on world-wide issues surrounding human rights, compassion, civil disobedience, and progress through non-violence.

The Menil Collection

KODE - Art Museums of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Curated by Marie von Möller
October 10 - January 25, 2015

Kimsooja will present 'A Needle Woman' (2009) video projection

In recent years there has been an increased interest in handcraft techniques and materials in contemporary art, among them embroidery. This exhibition is a collaborative project between KODE and the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. Both museums have fetched embroidery gems from their collections that illustrate the unique qualities of embroidery.

KODE

Kunsthaus CentrePasquArt, Biel, Switzerland
Curated by Chris Sharp and Gianni Jetzer
August 31 - November 2, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'A Needle Woman' (2009) video projection

The exhibition The City Performed at Kunsthaus CentrePasquArt extends the concept of performance in public space in both historical-geographical and political terms. It explicitly incorporates artists who have implemented street performances under various circumstances—in some cases at the risk of being arrested and imprisoned. The museum-based exploration offers a more in-depth examination of the context of performance and dance, in which the definition and interpretation of public space differs with each work shown. Considering differences and distinctions is the only way to tackle the complexity of the system of discourse, society, city and public space.

CenterPasquArt

Galerie des Bibliothèques de Paris, Paris, France
Curated by Claire Berger-Vachon & Anne Cartier-Bresson
September 26, 2014 - January 4, 2015

Kimsooja will present 'A Needle Woman' (2009) video projection

Paris Bibliotheques

LEEUM, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Curated by Hyesoo WOO
August 28 – December 12, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'Aire de Tierra / Air of Earth' (2009) video projection

This year, Leeum Samsung Museum of Art celebrates the tenth anniversary of its foundation. Curated around the theme, Beyond and Between, this exhibition presents a wide selection of works from the museum’s collection, spanning the prehistoric to the Joseon period in terms of traditional Korean art, modern and contemporary Korean art from the beginning of Western influence to pre- and postwar periods, and global contemporary art.

'Air of Earth' is one of eight videos that compose 'Earth, Water, Fire, and Air', a multi-channel video project by artist Kimsooja. This work contains footage of an active volcano located in Guatemala and of the immediate transformation of lava into volcanic stone and ash. Captured in this work is Kimsooja’s intention to visualize the earth through the relationships between the elements of fire, water, and air, as they circulate and connect. In observing the creation of volcanic stone and ash in the midst of the spewing hot air, viewers realize the principle in nature that undergoes creation, change, and extinction and the similarities between nature and human life.

LEEUM, Samsung Museum of Art

The ARC, Gangjeong, South Korea
Curated by Okreal Kim
August 23 – September 28, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'Tierra de Agua / Earth of Water' (2009) site-specific video projection

Gangjeong is a place where artists from all over the regions of Korea gathered and had art festivals from 1977 to 1979. Especially, a lot of artists from Japan joined in the art festival held in 1979 and shared their art with Korean artists whose works were very experimental and sensational at that time. It was an international art event that presented futuristic potential in Korean art. Historically, Gangjeong is a meaningful place where artists showed their own responses to the current of the times in the artworks.

2014 Daegu Contemporary Art Festival in Gangjeong is to make people remember the historical meaning of the art festival held in Gangjeong in the 1970’s and realize the need to make art stronger and more creative through the futuristic vision. In this aspect, Gangjeong can be an aesthetic field where the role of art is extended and connected to our lives by provoking and sharing thoughts of art in the past, present and the future. 

2014 Daegu Contemporary Art Festival in Gangjeong

National Art School Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Curated by Kim Machan
August 21 – October 11, 2014
Kimsooja will present 'Bottari - Alfa Beach' (2001) video projection

LANDSEASKY sets out to challenge the illusionist elements that we readily consume in screen culture. The artists have been selected as their work sharpens our focus on the medium of video, inevitably comparing and contrasting the strategies each artist uses to articulate their concepts. The works have a very strong physical and visual impact. However, the exhibition extends the investigation of video space to include other subtle approaches that will add and amplify the discussion of spatiality in video. For instance, some of the proposed works update the connection between history and society with a fresh perspective

National Art School Gallery

Prison Sainte-Anne, Avignon, France
Curated by Éric Mézil
May 18 – November 25, 2014
Kimsooja will present 'Bottari - Alfa Beach' (2001) video projection, 'Bottari' (2004) 4 Bottari installation

The Collection Lambert will occupy the cells, corridors and certain courtyards of the prison, to exhibit works from the prestigious private collection of Enea Righi. The title is borrowed from the famous text published by Pasolini in 1975 in the Corriere, which will impregnate visitors' entire collection tour; indeed, this exhibition is meant to be a sensorial experience in which the memory-steeped locations and their hosted artworks will come together and interact in the manner of the Italian director's beloved fireflies. The theme of "imprisonment" will naturally be evoked, as well as "the passage of time", "solitude" and "love".

Collection Lambert

National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C, USA
Curated by Kathryn Wat
June 6 – October 12, 2014
Kimsooja will present 'Thread Routes - Chapter 1' (2010) video projection

Featuring recently acquired works in NMWA’s collection as well as loans from private and public collections, Total Art highlights the inventive processes that sustain women artists’ position at the forefront of video. Total Art reflects the continued global scope of video.

NMWA

2013
LED video projection in HD format
11:02 loop
Silent

Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program of the U.S. General Services Administration in 2010, Kimsooja has created a poignant site-specific artwork for the Mariposa Land Port of Entry.

One of the busiest land ports in the United States, Mariposa serves as the main port of entry for fresh produce entering the United States from Mexico and facilitates over 23 million visitor border crossings every year.

On this border, Kimsooja has installed a large LED screen directly on the borderline, above the revolving door at the first pedestrian entry to US territory. Both marking the site and emphasizing the concept of borderlines, the screen plays a new video work created especially for this specific location and community.

Filmed in Nogales in 2013, An Album: Borderlines consists of silent video portraits of community members who live with the daily reality of the borderline, commuting between both countries. The portraits show each individual in three different positions: facing the viewer, facing away, and turning back towards the viewer. These three distinctive postures represent the individuals' journeys through their past, present and future. The figures facing the camera suggest arrival/encounter, whereas those same figures facing away from the camera evoke departure/separation. The artist provoked the action of turning back towards the viewer by calling the name of each individual during filming, offering the opportunity to re-enter the memory of a reality left behind. Throughout all of the portraits, the subtle changes in facial expressions suggest interior, psychological journeys.

Kimsooja conceived of this video as a group portrait of the current social and cultural landscapes of the United States—a country of immigrants, while addressing the sensitive and harsh reality of the borderline between the US and Mexico. As the artwork's title suggests, this video album of portraits addresses many different types of borderlines: physical, psychological, geographical, political, and cultural.

In a poetic reflection on the concept of the work, the screen itself performed the gesture of the individuals it depicts and asks the viewers who pass beneath it to do the same. In order to observe the rhythmically changing video portraits, visitors passing across the border from Mexico to the US will mimic the gestures of the figures on the screen by turning back to look over their shoulder, perhaps prompting them to reflect on their own personal, interior journeys. By presenting real portraits of the people of Nogales, Kimsooja's artwork bears witness and embraces the many hopes, joys, desires, memories, challenges and destinies that constitute a vibrant immigrant society.

Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
2010 – 2013


GSA

Galería Kewenig
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
June 5 – August 2, 2014

Mandala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the shape of a T. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts, as a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction. According to David Fontana, its symbolic nature can help one "to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting the meditator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises." The psychoanalyst Carl Jung saw the mandala as "a representation of the unconscious self," and believed his paintings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work towards wholeness in personality. In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, a microcosm of the Universe from the human perspective.

To Breathe: Mandala (2010) is an installation that is represented by a ready-made American jukebox speaker, which has the structure of a Mandala. The speaker has an array of vivid colors with a rotating central section covered in mirrors. Playing on the speaker is a breathing sound performance of the artist's amplified inhaling, exhaling and humming (The Weaving Factory, 2004).

Enveloped within a painted yellow square, the spinning central mirror of the jukebox reflects light throughout the Oratorio de Sant Feliu—the 13th century single nave chapel in which it is installed. In Obangsaek—the Korean color field that represents the nature of the universe—yellow is situated at the center of the four cardinal points and signifies 'universe', 'earth', 'power' and 'dignity'. Together with the artist's breathing sounds, which recall both the individual and universal body, the speaker becomes a unifying axis, a mandala. Kimsooja leads us to a hypnotic and meditative outer space of timelessness, enhancing the sense of belonging to a universal, spiritual world, which inspires us to look within and reflect on our being in the world, embracing current political and religious conflicts. Although her work is devoid of direct political connotations, Kimsooja poses these questions to challenge us, and invites the audience to locate themselves within all the different spiritual zones that co-exist in a single space, which can provide the keys for understanding the world in which we live.


Bottari – An Island
2014

During a residency at MOMA PS1 in New York in 1992, Kimsooja discovered bottari as a form of tableau, sculpture, ready-used object and concept.

In early iterations of bottari, the artist used fragments of colorful Korean fabrics as a way to create a "pigment", which related more directly to the formal qualities of bottari. Over time, this practice evolved beyond its aesthetic qualities as the artist began to construct bottari from used clothing and objects in order to emphasize elements of reality and a more specific social, cultural and bodily presence.

After leaving New York in 1993, the artist created a bottari by wrapping a telephone book from the city that year. Soon after, following the death of a supportive collector, Rolf Hoffmann, Kimsooja worked with his widow, Erica Hoffmann to collect some of his favorite personal items. Both of the women wrapped these items together to create a bottari as memorial to him.

As an action of performance—of wrapping bodies and memories, bottari became, rather than a formal sculpture; a memorial—a space indicative of loss, migration and hope. This wrapping of memory soon expanded to incorporate the anonymous victims of disaster and loss. In Bottari: The Island (2011) Kimsooja filled eight bottaris with used clothing donated from Japan which were then installed for the exhibition, TRA – Edge of Becoming (Palazzo Fortuni, Venice, 2011) in commemoration of the devastating tsunami in 2011.

Since the Deductive Object series of the early 90s, Kimsooja has been incorporating used objects into her bottaris as well as photographing flea market objects as an 'unfolded Bottari' series. The artist continues this exploration of the expressive power of ordinary used objects in these new works. For Bottari - An Island, the artist has collected different symbolic objects from the island of Mallorca, further expanding her decades long exploration of bottari as concept, bottari as memory and bottari as a body and an island.


Accompanying these works are photographs of prior bottari installations and the performative sculpture Encounter – Looking into Sewing (1998-2011) in which an apparently faceless figure is swathed in layers of colorful Korean fabrics. Speaking to us of privacy, intimacy, sex and dreams, the figure reveals itself as both unique and unknowable beneath numerous layers of formalistic and social conventions.

After two solo shows in the recently closed Cologne Gallery in 2005 and 2007, KEWENIG is showing Kimsooja's work for the first time in Palma de Mallorca.


Galería Kewenig

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
Curated by Hiromi Kitazawa
February 7 - February 23, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'Cities on the Move - 2727km Bottari truck', 'Bottari', and 'A Needle Woman'- a special selection of the cities chosen by the artist for Yebisu International Festival 2013

Yebisu Festival

Art Sonje, Seoul, Korea
Curated by Kim Machan
February 22 - February 23, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'Bottari: Alfa' Beach

This  group of challenging video installations includes works by fifteen international artists and
scheduled to be presented in Korea, China and Australia. The first exhibition of LANDSEASKY occurs
across an array of venues in Seoul,  South Korea in partnership with Artsonje Center, Lee Hwaik
Gallery, One & J Gallery, Opsis Art, Gallery IHN, and Gallery Skape.

MAAP

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany
Curated by Prof. Dr. Markus Brüderlin
October 12, 2013 - March 2, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'Thread Routes - Chapter I'.

An exploration of the significance of textile, involving a re-reading of the history of modern art from Art Nouveau to the present. This large-scale exhibition of approximately 200 works by 140 artists, among them major paintings by Gustav Klimt, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock.

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

La Fabrica, Madrid, Spain

February 4 – April 6, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'Encounter – Looking into Sewing' (1998-2013), 'Deductive Object' (1996-2013), 'To Breathe: Invisible Needle/Invisible Mirror' (2007), and 'The Sun Unfolded' (2008)

In 'Kimsooja - Bottaris', the artist presents four bodies of work, each of which approach the concept of bottari and its relationship both to Obangsaek color field and to the tension surrounding the performative figure. Signifying four cardinal points and the center, the theory of the Korean color field known as Obangsaek, draws from the relationships of Yin and Yang, Shamanism and Taoism. In this group of works, Obangsaek is unfolded in relation to the dynamic presence/absence of the performing body.

From the hidden bodies of the 'Encounter - Looking into Sewing' and 'Deductive Object' photographs, to the implied body of architectural space in 'To Breathe: Invisible Needle/Invisible Mirror' and the celestial body of 'The Sun Unfolded', the works in Kimsooja - Bottaris explore the movement from surface to spirit across three distinct but related physical realms.

Galarie La Fabrica

Museo Naval, Columbia
Curated by Berta Sichel
February 7 – April 7, 2014
Kimsooja will present 'Thread Routes - Chapter I'.

The Biennial is created with the idea of further enhancing Cartagena as a center for the arts by
incorporating the visual arts along with the existing presence of music, literature, and film, and other
cultural manifestations already emblematic to the city, for the cultural enrichment of the community.

BIACI

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
Curated by Hiromi Kitazawa
February 7 - February 23, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'Cities on the Move - 2727km Bottari truck', 'Bottari', and 'A Needle Woman'- a special selection of the cities chosen by the artist for Yebisu International Festival 2013

Yebisu Festival/

Art Sonje, Seoul, Korea
Curated by Kim Machan
February 22 - February 23, 2014

Kimsooja will present 'Bottari: Alfa' Beach

This  group of challenging video installations includes works by fifteen international artists and
scheduled to be presented in Korea, China and Australia. The first exhibition of LANDSEASKY occurs
across an array of venues in Seoul,  South Korea in partnership with Artsonje Center, Lee Hwaik
Gallery, One & J Gallery, Opsis Art, Gallery IHN, and Gallery Skape.

MAAP

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany
Curated by Prof. Dr. Markus Brüderlin
October 12, 2013 - March 2, 2014
Kimsooja will present 'Thread Routes - Chapter I'.

An exploration of the significance of textile, involving a re-reading of the history of modern art from Art Nouveau to the present. This large-scale exhibition of approximately 200 works by 140 artists, among them major paintings by Gustav Klimt, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock.

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

KIMSOOJA Unfolding

Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Curated by Daina Augaitis

October 11, 2013 – January 26, 2014

KIMSOOJA Unfolding is the first retrospective exhibition to assess the thirty- year career of the Korean-born, Paris- and New York based artist, and offers an unprecedented opportunity to trace the development of the artist's practice from her earlier works to her more recent production.

While the scale and media of her art has varied widely, what remains constant is an engagement with questions of identity in the face of change and social flux. The exhibition highlights works that address notions of time, memory and displacement, and the relationship between the human body and the material world. This broad survey includes early textile-based pieces from the 1980s, Deductive Objects, large site-specific installations such as Bottari Truck, as well as single and multi-channel videos.

North American audiences were introduced to Kimsooja's work in the early 1990s when she began constructing bottari—objects wrapped in colourful Korean fabrics—during a residency at MoMA PS1 in New York. Kimsooja's adaptation of this Korean tradition of using fabric to bundle and transport domestic items not only garnered the international art community's attention, but also became a formal and symbolic device that she continued to use throughout her career.

The exhibition is accompanied by the KIMSOOJA Unfolding book, co-published by the Vancouver Art Gallery and Hatje Cantz (Berlin), which features over 100 images of the artist's work as well as essays by Daina Augaitis, Mary Jane Jacob, David Morgan, Selene Wendt and Suh Young-Hee.


Artist's Talk
Tuesday, October 8, 7pm
SFU Woodwards, World Art Centre, 149 West Hastings, 2nd Floor

Kimsooja speaks about her practice and recent work representing Korea in the Venice Biennial. Co-presented with the SFU Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Free to the public.

Vancouver Art Gallery

Korean Pavilion
The 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

Curator / Commissioner: Seungduk Kim
Oranized by ARKO (Arts Council Korea)
Deputy commissioner: Kyungyun Ho

June 1 – November 24, 2013

To Breathe: Bottari presents the empty space of the Pavilion, inviting only the bodies of the audience to encounter the infinite reflections of light and sound. The artist's amplified inhaling, exhaling and humming performance sound (The Weaving Factory, 2004-2013) fills the air, transforming the pavilion into a breathing bottari.

Simultaneously, the artist extends the experience of light and sound by creating an anechoic chamber. A space in complete darkness that absorbs all audio waves, leaving nothing but the sound of the viewer's own body, To Breathe: Blackout (2013) creates a soundless dark void of infinite reflection of self: a black hole."

click here for more images

www.koreanpavilion2013.com

ZACHĘTA - National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
Curated by Maria Brewińska
September 6 – November 10, 2013

Kimsooja will present "Mandala: Zone of Zero".

“In God We Trust” will bring together a multigenerational group of contemporary American artists from different religious backgrounds, who will look at religions, singular beliefs, spirituality, unusual faiths, sects or cults from an outside perspective, bringing viewers closer to the particular dynamics of each and thus unveiling the variegated landscape of American religion and the extraordinary diversity of U.S. cultures. The exhibition will also deal with many aspects of this complex theme focusing, for example, on the relationships between religion and society, economy/capitalism, politics, patriotism/Americanism, sport, popular culture, etc.

ZACHĘTA

TANAS, Berlin, Germany
Curated by René Block

September 8 – November 3, 2013

Kimsooja will present and installation of "Encounter - Looking into Sewing", 1998 - 2011 performative sculpture, with "Bottari", 2005.

Invited to the exhibition The Unanswered Question. İskele 2 are artists, performers and musicians from different generations and geopolitical spaces, who work on and with social intersections and create links and connections to the lived concepts of an exemplary global citizenship within the cultural field. Turkey is the starting point of the investigation, but the show is looking much further, to the regions formerly belonging to the periphery, which during the last 20 years have experienced a boost of modernization and internationalization. The exhibition and performance program try to explore the materiality of the interstices, the transit, and to open a space, which brings about a new perspective of the relationship between audience—work—space. The project, together with the artists, aims at temporarily creating a space in which cultural representation and attribution are not at the forefront. 

A cooperation between Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and TANAS Berlin.

TANAS

Orange County Museum of Art, California, USA
Curated by Dan Cameron
June 30 – November 17, 2013

Kimsooja will present "Thread Routes - Chapter 1" at the 2013 California-Pacific Triennial.

Formerly known as the California Biennial, OCMA has re-envisioned this important survey of contemporary California art and will re-launch it as the California-Pacific Triennial in 2013 with participating artists representing a cross-section of countries from throughout the Pacific rim.

Orange County Museum of Art

Museum of Contemporary art Marseilles, France
Curated by Thierry Ollat and Nicolas Feodoroff

May 24 – October 20, 2013

Kimsooja will present "A Needle Woman", filmed in Paris 2009.

Featuring artists from different generations who have all moved, migrated, and created new worlds for themselves, this collection shows the universal character of the Mediterranean experience. Marseille is a crossroads for travellers from north and south, east and west. The exhibition starts at the Contemporary Art Museum and continues throughout the city with exceptional works in remarkable venues.

Marseille-Provence 2013

The Bloomberg Building, New York City, USA
Curated by Susan Sollins for Art21

June 25 – September 27, 2013

Kimsooja has been invited to participate in the site-specific exhibition The Lift:II, commissioned by Art21 for the elevators at Bloomberg HQ in New York. For this second iteration of Art21′s elevator project Kimsooja created "To Breathe: Obangsaek" which is presented as wallpaper for four of the building’s 16 elevators.

Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne, Switzerland
Curated by Nicole Schweizer

October 18, 2013 – January 5, 2014

Kimsooja will present "A Needle Woman", 1999 - 2001, 8 channel video projection.

Taking as its starting point the first video to enter the museum's collection (Jean Otth, Limite E, 1973), the exhibition spans forty years of video art around questions of space. The works articulated non-chronologically around thematic sections, such as TV as experimentation space (from closed-circuit to broadcast); Spaces of creation (the workshop, the street, the open space); Measuring Space (from Land Art to the Politics of Space); Writing Space; Imaginary spaces and Spaces of memor..

Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne

Courbet Museum, Ornans, France
Curated by Christine Rouillaux
Co-organized by Le Consortium and Le Centre d'Art Mobile in Besancon

October 19 – November 3, 2013

Kimsooja will present "A Laundry Woman - Yamuna River", 2000.

The exhibition gathering works of art from Kimsooja, Sigalit Landau and Marcel Ordinaire at the Courbert Museum in Ornans, tries to reach the mysteries of contemplation through times and places. Settled in the museum next to the Loue River, along the river'edge, the exhibition offers three visions of water and the impact/traces it may leave on humanity and its evanescence.

Courbet Museum

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
Curated by Chuyoung Lee

October 2 – December 31, 2013

'Thread Routes - Chapter 1' will be presented from the museum's collection.

This special exhibition allows the viewers to get a glimpse into the development and originality of Korean contemporary media art. It presents representative media artworks in the collection of the museum. Featured are pioneering works by icons of Korean video art including Nam June Paik(1932~2006) and Park Hyun-ki(1942~2000), as well as new media works by young artists actively working today including Lee Yongbaek, Jung Yeon-doo, and Ham Yang-ah.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

Korean Pavilion
The 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

Curator / Commissioner: Seungduk Kim

Oranized by ARKO (Arts Council Korea)
Deputy commissioner: Kyungyun Ho

June 1st–November 24th, 2013

click here for more images

Kimsooja, To Breathe: Bottari, 2013
Mixed media installation, The Korean Pavilion, Venice
Courtesy of ARKO, Arts Council of Korea & Kimsooja Studio

Main space:
To Breathe: Bottari, 2013
Diffraction grating film, aluminium mirror panels
The Weaving Factory, 2004-2013
The artist's voice performance sound, 5.1 channel, 9:14, loop

Anechoic Chamber:
To Breathe: Blackout, 2013
Anechoic chamber in complete darkness

The notion of bottari (bundle) as a whole and totality and the concept of sewing have been the central components of Kimsooja's work for over three decades. Posing various questions about the formal aspects of tableau, sculpture, object and installation; bottari encompasses issues of body, self and others and the relationship of yin and yang to life and death. Bottari explores problems of location and dislocation; migration; exile; and war while posing existential and cognitive questions in space and time.

Approaching the architecture of the Korean Pavilion as a bottari, the artist has wrapped the division between nature and the interior space with a transluscent film. Treating the windows as the skin of the pavilion, the film diffracts the natural sunlight as it showers the interior space with rainbow spectrums of light.

The intensity of the light in the pavilion will correspond to the daily movement of the sun rising to its setting across the Korean Pavilion—which is located right next to the Lagna di Venezia—transforming the space into a transcendental experience—folding and unfolding the phenomenon of light.

To Breathe: Bottari presents the empty space of the Pavilion, inviting only the bodies of the audience to encounter the infinite reflections of light and sound. The artist's amplified inhaling, exhaling and humming performance sound (The Weaving Factory, 2004-2013) fills the air, transforming the pavilion into a breathing bottari.

Simultaneously, the artist extends the experience of light and sound by creating an anechoic chamber. A space in complete darkness that absorbs all audio waves, leaving nothing but the sound of the viewer's own body, To Breathe: Blackout (2013) creates a soundless dark void of infinite reflection of self: a black hole.

The artist invites audiences to be the live and active performers, experiencing a personal sensation and awareness that reveals the extremes of light and darkness, sound and soundlessness, the known and the unknown. This installation questions visual knowledge as the known and darkness as the unknown—that originates from human ignorance—through two visual extremes that are connected as part of a whole. The Korean Pavilion will become a physical and psychological sanctuary, questioning the conditions of civilization in this era.

Main Sponsor:
Nexon Corporation

Supports:
Samsung Foundation of Culture
Samsung Electronics
Jain Song

Support of Galleries:
Kukje Gallery, Seoul
Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milano
Kewenig Galerie, Berlin & Majorca
La Fabrica, Madrid
Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

Catalogue:
A fully illustrated 240 page hard cover catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Published by Les presses du réel with the support of Arts Council Korea (ARKO), Kukje Gallery, Seoul; Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan; Kewenig Galerie, Berlin; Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz; and edited by Franck Gautherot and Seungduk Kim, the catalogue includes texts by Dan Graham, Yongwoo Lee, Michel Mossessian, Seungduk Kim, and includes an interview with Kimsooja.

Also featuring re-published texts by Sang-hwan Bak, Ingrid Commandeur, Ricky D'Ambrose, Doris von Drathen, Bernhard Fibicher, Antonio Geusa, Jonathan Goodman, Steven Henry Madoff, Leigh Markopoulos, Rosa Martinez, Laeticia Mello, Hyungmin Pai, Kimsooja, Sung Won Kim, Robert C. Morgan, Francesca Pasini, Oliva Maria Rubio, Barry Schwabsky, Susan Sollins, the late Harald Szeemann, Hoi-seok Yang.

www.lespressesdureel.com Facebook: Korean Pavilion 2013
www.koreanpavilion2013.com
www.kimsooja.com

The ARKO selection committee decided last August to commission Seungduk Kim to be the curator of the Korean Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia 2013.

" Traditionally, la Biennale di Venezia exhibits artists hosted by their countries of origin in national pavilions. Rather like in World Expos, I wanted the Korean Pavilion itself to be the focus : the pavilion hosts an environment designed by an artist.
The architecture of the Korean Pavilion is a metallic structure with glass windows, wide-open to the luminous laguna and surrounded by tall trees. I decided to invite Kimsooja, a Korean-born artist self-exiled to New York, and internationally acclaimed for her video works and installations, to transform the Korean Pavilion into a space of special experience for the visitors. A moment of light, colors, and in a black hole."

- Seungduk Kim

Kimsooja

Born in Korea (1957), lives in New York, Paris & Seoul.

Kimsooja is an internationally acclaimed conceptual multi-media artist. Addressing issues of thedisplaced self and others; the artist's work combines performance, video, photo and site-specificinstallation using sound, light and specific Korean bedcovers. With the eyes of a mirror and aneedle that reveals and brings us to an awareness of self, Kimsooja investigates questionsconcerning the conditions of humanity, while engaging issues of aesthetics, culture, politics, andthe environment we live in. Kimsooja brings together a conceptual and a structural investigationof all art media through an exploration of materiality/immateriality, mobility/immobility, bynon-making and non-doing, that inverts the notion of the artist as the predominant actor. Theartist takes us on her journey that evolves with the continuous unfolding of her concept of
Bottari (Korean word meaning bundle) and the notions of Needle and Mirror. Kimsooja's workinvites us to question our existence, the world, and the major challenges we are facing in this era.

• Solo exhibitions include P.S.1 / MoMA (2001) ; Crystal Palace of Reina Sofia (2006) ; Traveling solo show at Contemporary Art Museum of Lyon, Museum Kunst Palast Dusseldorf, and PAC Milan (2003-2004) ; Hirshhorn Museum (2008) ; Miami Art Museum (2012) ; Perm Contemporary Art Museum, Russia (2012) ; Kunsthal 44 Møen (2012) ; Museum of Modern Art St. Etienne (2012) ; Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa & Theatro di La Fenice, Venice (2006); Baltic Center (2009) ; BOZAR Brussels (2008) ; Kunsthalle Bern (2002) ; Kunsthalle Vienna (2002) ; the National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea for the Yong Gwang Nuclear Power Plant (2010) ; Daegu Art Museum (2011) ; Atelier Hermes Seoul (2009) ; Rodin Gallery Seoul (2000) ; ICC, Tokyo (2000) ; and CCA Kitakyushu (1999).

• Group shows include Artempo (2007) and In-Finitum (2009), Venice (1997-2000) ; Cities on the Move traveling show, Traditions/Tensions (1996-1998).

• Biennales include Venice (1999, 2005), Sao Paolo (1997), the Whitney Biennial (2002),
Istanbul (1998), Lyon (2000), Gwangju (1995, 2012), Busan (2002), Sydney (1998), Valencia
(2003), and most recently Thessaloniki (2010), Moscow (2009) and Poznan (2010).

www.kimsooja.com

Seungduk Kim

Born in Korea, lives in Paris. Seungduk Kim was a nomadic curator for years. In 2001 she joined
Le Consortium, contemporary art center (Dijon, France), where she works now as Co-Director.

Selected recent large scale projects & professional experiences

• Doha Project (Qatar) // Public Art Consultant, Co-Direction with Le Consortium, since 2011
• APAP 2007, 2nd edition of permanent public art projects in Anyang (Korea), 2007
• Valencia Biennale (Spain) // Co-Commissioner, 2005
• Samsung Foundation of Culture, Seoul (Korea) // Consultative Curator (Venice & Paris), 1993-
   2000
• Musée national d'Art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (France) // Associate Curator
   in the Collection Department, 1996-1998

Selection of exhibitions as curator or co-curator

• Lynda Benglis : 2009-2011 (co-curator), touring retrospective exhibition
• Jurgen Teller: Touch me, Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul (Korea), April 15 - July 31
   2011
• Yayoi Kusama : Mirrored Years, 2008-2010 (co-curator), Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum,
   Rotterdam ; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (Australia) ; City Gallery Wellington (New
   Zealand)
• Yayoi Kusama : Dots Obsession - Love Transformed into Dots, 2007-2008 (Co-Curator), Haus
   der Kunst, Munich (Germany)
• Elastic Taboos : Within the Korean World of Contemporary Art, Kunsthalle Vienna (Austria),
   2007
• Thoughts of a Fish in a Deep Sea, Valencia Biennale (Spain), Co-Commissioner, 2005
• Flower Power, for Lille 2004, European Cultural Capital City, Lille (France)

Aix-en Provence, France
Curated by Xavier Douroux

January 12 - February 17, 2013

Kimsooja will present To Breathe - The Flags, a series of 11 large-scale still images taken from the video artwork of the same name, printed on billboards throughout the center of Aix-en Provence.

In Kimsooja’s work To Breathe - The Flags two hundred and forty six national flags dissolve in
a continuous loop, their iconic surfaces morphing into one another. The artist presents the
flags as indistinguishable cross-pollinating visual symbols, their purported intent—as symbols
of state sovereignty and nationhood—emptied out and depleted.

The effect of To Breathe - The Flags is twofold, both transforming the ubiquitous national
symbol of the flag into a more tentative object, one that is provisional and fluid, as well as
maintaining the flag as a colorful and seductive object of desire, one that is sinuous and full of
kinetic energy.

Aix-en Provence

Guangdong Times Museum, China
Curated by Hou Hanru

January 19 - March 17, 2013

A Group exhibition which Kimsooja will exhibit "A Needle Woman", four channel video
projection in which the artist stands motionless with her back to the camera, in four
metropolitan cities of Cairo, London, Lagos, and Mexico City.

Times Museum

Tochigi Prefecture Museum of Fine Art, Japan

January 26 - March 24, 2013

This traveling exhibition explores the work of Asian women artists prominent since the 1980s,
and is shown for the first time in Japan. The works span the genres of painting, photography,
video, installation and more, revealing the diversity of themes and expressive styles amoung
these artists.

In particular, the exhibition is mainly composed of the works based on experiences of social
gender role and expected positions/roles as females, awareness of female issues posed by
daily life, or concerns with history, war, and ethnicity. Furthermore, by showing current new
trends, the exhibition also looks toward the future of works by women artists.

The exhibition will present 110 works from 48 artists mainly from the collection of the Fukuoka
Asian Art Museum.

Tochigi Prefecture Museum of Fine Art

Kukje Gallery - Seoul, Korea

August 29, 2012 - October 10, 2012

Kukje Gallery is pleased to present Kimsooja's solo exhibition TO BREATHE, on view from August 29 through October 10 in the gallery's K2 and K3 spaces. Internationally renowned for her powerful spiritual and philosophical approach to art making, Kimsooja's work incorporates sculpture, performance and video work to explore the relationship of the body to consciousness and cultural norms. In the artist's own words, "I've always had a desire to present the reality of the world as it is, by presenting bodies, objects and nature without manipulating or making something new. Instead, I expect my own experiences and those of my audience to reveal new perceptions of the reality of the world and the reality of our existence."

Kukje Gallery

The 9th Gwangju Biennale - 'Roundtable' - Seoul, Korea

September 7, 2012 - November 11, 2012

Kimsooja will exhibit "An Album: Hudson Guild" at the 9th Gwangju Biennale. "An Album: Hudson Guild" was inspired by a special moment Kimsooja experienced with her deceased father who had brain damage and memory loss. Kimsooja's calls to the individuals in the video resonate with her calls to her father to see his face, and to bring forward memories of him.

In this video work Kimsooja pursues anonymous people's portraits from Hudson Guild, New York, where elderly people come to participate in social programs. Most people are immigrants, aged 60 to 80. The video consisted of individuals portraits vertically framed facing, with their back to, and turning their head to look at the camera when the artist calls each one's name. The subjects, mostly silent and with their own ways of gazing, rhythmically appear and disappear into the black background screen that is divided into three vertical sections. The figures are at times alone, and other times together with their own portrait

Gwangju Biennale

Copenhagen Art Festival, Denmark
Curated by Anne Kielgast

August 24, 2012 - September 4, 2012

Copenhagen Art Festival presents a multifaceted exhibition programme with art works by Danish and international artists. The festival will take place in the streets and squares of the inner city of Copenhagen and at the major contemporary art centres: Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art and Gl. Strand Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Copenhagen Art Festival

Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, Russia
Curated by Antonio Guesa

June 01, 2012 - July 01, 2012
Opening, May 31, 2012

A solo exhibition featuring all 8 channel video projections from Earth - Water - Fire - Air, 2009- 2010, on view at Perm Museum of Contemporary Art in Perm, Russia. This project was possible with the support of CEC ArtsLink, and The Trust for Mutual Understanding. An exhibition Catalogue will be published with an essay by Antonio Guesa.

Perm Museum of Contemporary Art

Kunsthal 44 Moen, Germany
Curated by Rene Block

June 9, 2012 - July 22, 2012
Opening reception Saturday June 9th, 4 – 6 P.M.
Artist Talk with Kimsooja, Sunday June 10th, 11:30 A.M.

The exhibition at Kunsthal 44 Møen is her first solo exhibition in Denmark, and presents works ranging from 1998 to 2009. An interview with curator-in-residence Chiara Giovando accompanies the exhibition.

Interview with Kimsooja

Kunsthal 44 Moen

Miami Art Museum (MAM)
Curated by Rene Morales

June 29, 2012 - August 26, 2012

On view at MAM from Friday, June 29 to Sunday, August 26, 2012, Kimsooja’s A Needle Woman consists of an eight-channel video installation set in the densely populated centers of Cairo, Delhi, Lagos, London, Mexico City, New York, Shanghai, and Tokyo. In each projection, a lone figure stands utterly motionless with her back to the camera, immersed amid a torrent of pedestrians. This presentation also includes two closely related single-channel videos by Kimsooja: A Needle Woman (Kitakyushu) and A Laundry Woman. Together they offer a vision of timeless serenity that serves as a counterpoint to the frenetic energy of the 21st-century global city.

"Kimsooja: A Needle Woman" Artist Talk and Preview

June 28, 2012
06:00PM - 08:00PM

101 West Flagler Street
Miami, FL 33130
Kimsooja in conversation with René Morales, MAM Associate Curator. Talk begins 6:30pm. Space is limited. First come, first seated. MAM members free, non-members $10. Parking: $5 at 50 NW 2nd Ave., overflow parking at 270 NW 2nd St.

Information at 305.375.1704 or RSVP@miamiartmuseum.org

Miami Art Museum

Perm Museum, Russia
Curated by Antonio Guesa

June 01, 2012 - July 01, 2012
Opening, May 31, 2012

A solo exhibition featuring all 8 channel video projections from Earth - Water - Fire - Air, 2009, on view at Perm Museum in Russia.

Perm Museum

Kunsthal 44 Moen, Germany
Curated by Rene Block

June 9, 2012 - July 22, 2012

The exhibition at Kunsthal 44 Møen is her first solo exhibition in Denmark, and presents works ranging from early 2000 to today.

Kunsthal 44 Moen

Miami Art Museum (MAM)
Curated by Rene Morales

June 29, 2012 - August 26, 2012

Miami Art Museum is pleased to present A Needle Woman – a multi-channel video installation by Korean artist Kimsooja. This epic work consists of eight synchronized videos projected at large scale, each depicting a bustling area of a major metropolitan center: Cairo, Delhi, Lagos, London, Mexico City, New York, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Miami Art Museum

Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons, The New School for Design
New York
Curated by Niels Van Tomme

February 2th - April 15th, 2012

A traveling group exhibiton with Kimsooja's 'A Needle Woman' Paris, single channel video installation. Where Do We Migrate To? explores contemporary issues of migration as well as experiences of displacement and exile.

Parsons, The New School for Design

MUSAC - Museo de Art Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon, Spain

June 29, 2012 - August 26, 2012

MUSAC Asian collection exhibition, In line with LOOP (Barcelona Video Art Festival)

MUSAC

Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston

May 31, 2012 @ 7:30pm

Walking in the City is a selection of videos and films by emerging and established artists who use the streets, plazas, and architecture of the city as sites for their own creative use: as a theater for performance, an arena for sport or dance, a site for political action, or a place for exploration. This one night screening event features Kimsooja's, A Needle Woman - Paris.

Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston

Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle
Curated by Luis A. Croquer

2012

A Needle Woman, Paris, 2009

Henry Art Gallery

Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint Etienne
France
Curated by Lorand Hegyi

February 24th - April 22nd, 2012

A solo exhibiton of 'A Needle Woman' six channel video installation and 'Bottari - Alfa Beach'.
This exhibition will be acompanied by a full catalogue on the art work exhibited.

Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint Etienne

Daegu Art Museum
South Korea
Curated by Yoon Jung Choi

December 6th, 2011 - April 1st, 2012

Daegu Art Museum

Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration

Paris
Curated by Hou Hanrou, Evelynne Jouanno, and Isabelle Renard

November 16th, 2011 - June 24th, 2012

Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration

Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint Etienne
France
Curated by Lorand Hegyi

February 24th - April 22nd, 2012

A solo exhibiton of 'A Needle Woman' six channel video installation and 'Bottari - Alfa Beach'.
This exhibition will be acompanied by a full catalogue on the art work exhibited.

Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint Etienne

Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons, The New School for Design
New York
Curated by Niels Van Tomme

February 2th - April 15th, 2012

A traveling group exhibiton with Kimsooja's 'A Needle Woman' Paris, single channel video
installation. Where Do We Migrate To? explores contemporary issues of migration as well as
experiences of displacement and exile.

Parsons, The New School for Design

Daegu Art Museum
South Korea
Curated by Yoon Jung Choi

December 6th, 2011 - April 1st, 2012

Daegu Art Museum

Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration

Paris
Curated by Hou Hanrou, Evelynne Jouanno, and Isabelle Renard

November 16th, 2011 - June 24th, 2012

Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration

Published by a.p.r.e.s éditions / Collections directed by Gilles Coudert.

With the sponsorship of Département du Val-de-Marne, MAC/VAL, Musée d'art contemporain
and MUDAM Luxembourg – Musée d'art moderne Grand-Duc Jean.

Collection Works & Process:

This DVD is dedicated to the work of Korean artist Kimsooja. All the films presented in this edition have an English version. The DVD proposes overall more than 2 hours of program made of 8 documentary movies following the actual making of various installations by Kimsooja all over the world (Hawaii, New York, Paris, Madrid) among which is a retrospective film interview with the artist evoking her whole career.

• 2 hours of program / 8 films
• DVD case with sleeve
• Versions: french, english and spanish / Subtitles: french and english
• 1 DVD5 – PAL – Multizone – AC3 Stereo – 4/3 & 16/9
• Publication Date: September 2012

For details and purchase please visit : a.p.r.e.s. éditions

• Two essays (with Korean translation): 'Kimsooja: Black Holes, Meditative Vanishings and Nature as a Mirror of The Universe', By Ingrid Commandeur and 'A Disappearing Woman', By Rosa Martinez
• 112 pages, color
• Hard cover binding

In the occasion of Kimsooja's solo exhibition at Kukje Gallery in Korea, Kimsooja Studio is pleased to announce a new publication, Kimsooja: To Breathe.

Exhibition Coordination by Zoe Minkyung Chun and Kimsooja Studio

Catalogue published by Kukje Gallery, Seoul
Catalogue design by So-young Kim in collaboration with Kimsooja Studio

For details and purchase please visit: Kukje Gallery

Daegu Art Museum
South Korea
Curated by Yoon Jung Choi
December 6th, 2011 - April 1st, 2012

A solo exhibiton of 'A Needle Woman' six channel video installation.
An exhibition Catalogue will acompany the show, and feature a series of essays by a
philosopher, an anthropologist, a cognitive psychologist, and an art critic. There will also be an
interview with the curator who will discuss Kimsooja's work in depth.

Daegu Art Museum

• Two essays (with Korean translation): 'Kimsooja: Black Holes, Meditative Vanishings and Nature as a Mirror of The Universe', By Ingrid Commandeur and 'A Disappearing Woman', By Rosa Martinez
• 112 pages, color
• Hard cover binding

In the occasion of Kimsooja's solo exhibition at Kukje Gallery in Korea, Kimsooja Studio is pleased to announce a new publication, Kimsooja: To Breathe.

Exhibition Coordination by Zoe Minkyung Chun and Kimsooja Studio

Catalogue published by Kukje Gallery, Seoul
Catalogue design by So-young Kim in collaboration with Kimsooja Studio

For details and purchase please visit: Kukje Gallery

Daegu Art Museum
South Korea
Curated by Yoon Jung Choi
December 6th, 2011 - April 1st, 2012

A solo exhibiton of 'A Needle Woman' six channel video installation.
An exhibition Catalogue will acompany the show, and feature a series of essays by a
philosopher, an anthropologist, a cognitive psychologist, and an art critic. There will also be an
interview with the curator who will discuss Kimsooja's work in depth.

Daegu Art Museum

Kröller-Müller Museum
Otterlo, The Netherlands
Curated by Toos van Kooten and Marente Bloemheuvel

October 9th, 2011 - January 15th, 2012

Kroller Muller

Städtische Galerie
Karlsruhe, Germany
Curated by Dr. Melanie Ardjah

November 12th, 2011 - February 12th, 2012 Städtische Galerie

Palais de la Porte,
Paris
Curated by Hou Hanrou, Evelynne Jouanno, and Isabelle Renard

November 16th, 2011 - June 24th, 2012

Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration

University Museum of Contemporary Art
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Curated by Loretta Yarlow

September 21st - December 18th, 2011
UMCA

Le Mois de la Photo a Montreal
Montreal
Curated by Anne-Marie Ninacs

September 8th - October 9th, 2011

Le Mois de la Photo

The Museum on the Seam
Jerusalem
Curated by Raphie Etgar

June 11th - December 31st, 2011

MOTS

Seoul Square Media Canvas
Seoul
Curated by Sungwon Kim

August 9th, 2011 - February 11th, 2012
Every Thursday, Saturday, Sunday at 8:30, 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00pm

Count Down

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
Detroit, MI
Curated by Luis A. Croquer

September 16th - December 30th, 2011

MOCAD

Kröller-Müller Museum
Otterlo, The Netherlands
Curated by Toos van Kooten and Marente Bloemheuvel

October 9th, 2011 - January 15th, 2012

The group exhibition: Windflower, Perceptions of Nature focuses on a specific aspect of
nature: nature as a vulnerable factor in the worldwide pursuit of progress. The museum
examines the subject from a broad perspective and from a wealth of various cultural
backgrounds.

Accompanyed text discussing Kimsooja's work 'Black Holes, Meditative Vanishings and Nature
as a Mirror of the Universe' by Ingrid Commandeur.

Kroller Muller

Städtische Galerie
Karlsruhe, Germany
Curated by Dr. Melanie Ardjah

November 12th, 2011 - February 12th, 2012

Group exhibition presenting artworks involving fabric, from the 1960s to the present day.
The exhibiton reflects upon the material fabric as an aesthetc category, and investigates
how artists use it and which concepts, themes and questions they connect to the material.

Also exhibiting Bottari Truck: Migrateurs, single channel projection.

Städtische Galerie

Palais de la Porte,
Paris
Curated by Hou Hanrou, Evelynne Jouanno, and Isabelle Renard

November 16th, 2011 - June 24th, 2012

Recent aquisitions by Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration,Paris. This exhibitionfocuses
on the eyes ofcontemporary artists, witha selection of artworks onloan from the Museum's
collection.

Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration

National Museum of American Indians
New York
Curated by Micaela Martegani

October 14th - October 15th, 2012, Screening from 12pm to 4pm

This event organized by MoreArt, will screen 'An Album: Hudson Guild' throughout the two days, with a brief introduction to the piece by a MoreArt representitive. The screening will be in the richly-decorated, wood-paneled, historic Collector's Room, which is normally closed to the public.

MoreArt

University Museum of Contemporary Art
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Curated by Loretta Yarlow

September 21st - December 18th, 2011

A selection of video works from 1990 to 2001 including A new edition of A Needle Woman.
There will also be an artist discussion with Robert C. Morgan during the opening from 6pm -
8pm.

This exhibition is a co-presentation between the UMCA and the Korean Consulate General in
Boston, with the support of the Korea Foundation.

Additional funding comes from the Fine Arts Center Friends Artist Residency Fund.

UMCA

Sullivan North Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Curated by Mary Jane Jacob

September 10th - October 8th, 2011

A site specific installation of "Mumbai: A laundry Field" 4 channel video projection in the
Sullivan North Gallery.

SAIC

Kimsooja, A Needle Woman, 2005

Le Mois de la Photo a Montreal
Montreal
Curated by Anne-Marie Ninacs

September 8th - October 9th, 2011

The 12th presentation of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, around which the 25 solo exhibition
program, publication, colloquium and other activities will be held from September 8 to October
9, 2011. The camera will be completely turned around for the event, showing that photography
can also bring into focus our interior world.

Le Mois de la Photo

Venice
Palazzo Fortuny
Curated by Daniela Ferretti, Rosa Martínez, Francesco Poli, and Axel Vervoordt

June 4th - November 27th, 2011

TRA-expo

Hangar Bicocca
Milan
Curated by Chiara Bertola with Andrea Lissoni

May 5th - October 3rd, 2011

Hangar Bicocca

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Louisiana, Denmark
Curated by Arne Schmidt-Petersen

June 1st - October 2nd, 2011

Louisiana

The Museum on the Seam
Jerusalem
Curated by Raphie Etgar

June 11th - December 31st, 2011

MOTS

Seoul Square Media Canvas
Seoul
Curated by Sungwon Kim

August 9th, 2011 - February 11th, 2012
Every Thursday, Saturday, Sunday at 8:30, 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00pm

Count Down

Kunstmuseum Bochum
Germany
Curated by Dr. Hans Günter Golinski and Maija Julius

August 28th - November 13th, 2011

Bochum

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
Detroit, MI
Curated by Luis A. Croquer

September 16th - December 30th, 2011

MOCAD

Sullivan North Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Curated by Mary Jane Jacob

September 10th - October 8th, 2011

A site specific installation of "Mumbai: A laundry Field" 4 channel video projection in the
Sullivan North Gallery.

SAIC

University Museum of Contemporary Art
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Curated by Loretta Yarlow

September 21st - December 18th, 2011

A selection of video works from 1990 to 2001 including A new edition of A Needle Woman.
There will also be an artist discussion with Robert C. Morgan during the opening from 6pm -
8pm.

This exhibition is a co-presentation between the UMCA and the Korean Consulate General in
Boston, with the support of the Korea Foundation.

Additional funding comes from the Fine Arts Center Friends Artist Residency Fund.

UMCA

Le Mois de la Photo a Montreal
Montreal
Curated by Anne-Marie Ninacs

September 8th - October 9th, 2011

The 12th presentation of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, around which the 25 solo exhibition
program, publication, colloquium and other activities will be held from September 8 to October
9, 2011. The camera will be completely turned around for the event, showing that photography
can also bring into focus our interior world.

Le Mois de la Photo

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
Detroit, MI
Curated by Luis A. Croquer

September 16th - December 30th, 2011

Barely there is a two part group exhibition that explores issues of immateriality, presence,
absence, performance and the performative. The exhibition also considers the ability of art to
engage broad and often intangible concepts by generating a series of connections rather than
functioning as a prescribed whole. barely there includes a multigenerational group of artists
and artworks produced in the span of over eighty years from the late 1920s to the present.

The first installment of the exhibition presented this summer dealt with the mind, touching on
abstract concepts such as death, love, identity, imagination, knowledge and the unintelligible-
many of them a constant fascination to artists over the centuries.

MOCAD

Kunstmuseum Bochum
Germany
Curated by Dr. Hans Günter Golinski and Maija Julius

August 28th - November 13th, 2011

Buddha’s trace refers to the initial tradition of Buddhism to picture Buddha not as a person, but
via his footstep. In this context the title of the exhibition is understood as a metaphor, which
reflects the influences of Buddhist philosophies in the works of contemporary Asian artists.

The exhibition is in cooperation with Ruhrtriennale, the International Festival of Theater &
Music.

Bochum

Seoul Square Media Canvas
Seoul
Curated by Sungwon Kim

August 9th, 2011 - February 11th, 2012
Every Thursday, Saturday, Sunday at 8:30, 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00pm

In collaboration with Seoul Square Media Center, “Countdown” presents a series of works on
the Seoul Square Media Canvas. Starting from Kimsooja’s Bottari Truck—Migrateurs, it will
continue to screen new video works by Rho Jae Oon, Koo Donghee, MeeNa Park, Minouk Lim,
and Han Keryoon.

Count Down

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Louisiana, Denmark
Curated by Arne Schmidt-Petersen

June 1st - October 2nd, 2011

Louisiana

Hangar Bicocca
Milan
Curated by Chiara Bertola with Andrea Lissoni

May 5th - October 3rd, 2011

Hangar Bicocca

Palazzo Fortuny
Venice
Curated by Daniela Ferretti, Rosa Martínez, Francesco Poli, and Axel Vervoordt

June 4th - November 27th, 2011
TRA-expo

The Museum on the Seam
Jerusalem
Curated by Raphie Etgar

June 11th - December 31st, 2011

MOTS

Palazzo Fortuny
Venice
Curated by Daniela Ferretti, Rosa Martínez, Francesco Poli, and Axel Vervoordt

June 4th - November 27th, 2011

TRA. EDGE OF BECOMING continues to explore the transversal connections between place,
history, creative heritage and universal wisdom. The rich and multidisciplinary legacy of
Mariano Fortuny, the wabi inspirations of Axel Vervoordt, the reflexions of economy thinker
Bernard Lietaer, scientist Eddi de Wolf, or architect Tatsuro Miki (Taro) created the starting
ground for this exhibition.

Kimsooja will be exhibiting a site specific installation dedicated to the victims of the devastation
caused from the recent Tsunami. The bottari works will be made using clothes specially
brought in from Japan.

This project was organized by Axel Vervorrdt Foundation, Wijnegem, Belgium, and supported
by Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium. With special thanks to Misa Shin Gallery, Tokyo
and New York Joe, Tokyo, for the organization and donation of the clothes.

TRA-expo

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Campus
Seattle, WA

Public view from June 2nd, 2011

A perminant site specific installation of "A Needle Woman", 2005, and "To Breathe: Invisible
Mirror/Invisible Needle", 2005. The 9 x 12 ft digital screen is located on Fifth Avenue North,
outside of the foundations new headquarters. This piece was Commisioned by The Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates Foundation

The Museum on the Seam
Jerusalem
Curated by Raphie Etgar

June 11th - December 31st, 2011

The exhibition will deal with the meeting that takes place between eastern and western
cultures in the political arena in the universal realm and the events that are delineating an
unknown future of tomorrow's world. Is this a symbiotic meeting or a clash of civilizations?

The exhibition will attempt to explore the reciprocal relationship between the cultures and the
changing power relations between them and to examine the signs that reveal the decline and
fall of the West while shedding light on the signs that characterize the rise of Islam and its
spreading influence on western civilization.

MOTS

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Louisiana, Denmark
Curated by Arne Schmidt-Petersen

June 1st - October 2nd, 2011

Group exhibition in the fourth and final phase.

The thematic segment of the Ideologies section explores the ideologies that are realized in the way we live: how does the idea of the good life look, and how do various ideologies affect architecture and design? New network formations among people and changes in social structures seem to be typical of the architecture of tomorrow. The urban nomad and the ‘single’ lifestyle call for new kinds of flexible dwellings.

Louisiana

Plateau
Samsung Museum of Art
Seoul, Korea
Curated by Soyeon Ahn

May 5th - July 10th, 2011

Site specific installation at Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art.

For this exhibition, Kimsooja's site-specific installation, Lotus: Zone of Zero, has been
recreated into a hollow mandala-shaped circle with 384 lotus lanterns hanging from the glass
pavilion of Plateau. In the background, Gregorian, Tibetan, and Islamic chants are
simultaneously echoed, and the three sounds unite at the center of the work. Through this
realm of "Zero", which dreams of a peaceful union of disparate faiths, the exhibition space is
transformed into a place of meditation and contemplation for viewers. In this particular
exhibition, Rodin's masterpiece The Gates of Hell, permanently on view in the glass pavilion,
also creates an interesting juxtaposition, encouraging then viewers to reexamine the religious,
political and cultural conflicts of this generation. Moreover, the countless repetition of the
lanterns and its grand harmony remind the viewer of the fundamental relationship between the
individual and community.

Plateau

Hangar Bicocca
Milan
Curated by Chiara Bertola with Andrea Lissoni

May 5th - October 3rd, 2011

Group exhibition in the fourth and final phase.

This is an evolving, germinating, organic project, which will be developed over the course of its
lifespan, enabling the public to play their part in it and allowing the artists to continue to
cultivate and nourish it. In this way, all those involved will become in some sense responsible
for the exhibition and for its continued existence.

The four exhibitions encompassed by the project are, in part, the result of the meetings with
artists held in Milan from September 2009 onwards. The monthly meetings have involved the
discussion and development of the process for the four exhibitions.

Hangar Bicocca

National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea
Gwacheon, Korea
Curated by Soo Youn Lee

April 12th - June 26th, 2011

Group exhibition of National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea's latest acquisitions.

"Last year, the museum collected Kimsooja’s representative work entitled, A Needle Woman.
Until then, we only had her early works (1991), which were created in a collage format made of
cloth. This A Needle Woman is a large work of art that took three years to create (starting in
1999), and it consists of 8 channels As a result, two different organizations had possessed four
channels of the work separately, but the museum was able to collect all eight of the pieces for
the first time in the world, and we can now display them all at once in one place. (Each channel
shows a video of Tokyo, Shanghai, Delhi, New York, Mexico City, Cairo, Lagos, and London,
respectively. The images on eight channels start at the same time, and end simultaneously.

NMCA

Leeum Samsung Museum
Seoul, Korea
Curated by Lee Joonn

March 17th - June 5th, 2011

Leeum Samsung Museum

K21, Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf, Germany

March 18th - July 17th, 2011

A group exhibition featuring Kimsooja's piece <Sewing into Walking>, 1994, 3 channel video and bottari installation

Kunstsammlung NRW

Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall

February 17th - May 29th, 2011

The exhibition Investigations of a Dog has borrowed its title from a short story by Franz Kafka
(1922) and presents works from the collections of all five members of FACE – Foundation of
Arts for a Contemporary Europe. The curator in Stockholm, Tessa Praun, describes the
exhibition's theme:

"Kafka's short story is written from the perspective of a dog suffering an identity crisis. The dog
is more introverted and reflective than his fellow dogs. This more critical approach to society,
complete with existential thoughts, is reflected in the artistic process of the works selected for
the exhibition."

Magasin 3

San Antonio Museum of Art
San Antonio, Texas

March 12th - July 31st, 2011

The result of collaboration between the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama
Foundation, The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama will conclude a five-year tour
at SAMA — an appropriate location since the Museum houses a fine collection of Himalayan
Buddhist art.

San Antonio Museum of Art

Plateau
Samsung Museum of Art
Seoul, Korea
Curated by Soyeon Ahn

May 5th - July 10th, 2011

Site specific installation at Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art.

For this exhibition, Kimsooja's site-specific installation, Lotus: Zone of Zero, has been
recreated into a hollow mandala-shaped circle with 384 lotus lanterns hanging from the glass
pavilion of Plateau. In the background, Gregorian, Tibetan, and Islamic chants are
simultaneously echoed, and the three sounds unite at the center of the work. Through this
realm of "Zero", which dreams of a peaceful union of disparate faiths, the exhibition space is
transformed into a place of meditation and contemplation for viewers. In this particular
exhibition, Rodin's masterpiece The Gates of Hell, permanently on view in the glass pavilion,
also creates an interesting juxtaposition, encouraging then viewers to reexamine the religious,
political and cultural conflicts of this generation. Moreover, the countless repetition of the
lanterns and its grand harmony remind the viewer of the fundamental relationship between the
individual and community.

Plateau

National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea
Gwacheon, Korea
Curated by Soo Youn Lee

April 12th - June 26th, 2011

Group exhibition of National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea's latest acquisitions.

"Last year, the museum collected Kimsooja’s representative work entitled, A Needle Woman.
Until then, we only had his early works (1991), which were created in a collage format made of
cloth. This A Needle Woman is a large work of art that took three years to create (starting in
1999), and it consists of 8 channels As a result, two different organizations had possessed four
channels of the work separately, but the museum was able to collect all eight of the pieces for
the first time in the world, and we can now display them all at once in one place. (Each channel
shows a video of Tokyo, Shanghai, Delhi, New York, Mexico City, Cairo, Lagos, and London,
respectively. The images on eight channels start at the same time, and end simultaneously.

MOCA

Hangar Bicocca
Milan
Curated by Chiara Bertola with Andrea Lissoni

May 5th - October 3rd, 2011

Group exhibition in the fourth and final phase.

This is an evolving, germinating, organic project, which will be developed over the course of its
lifespan, enabling the public to play their part in it and allowing the artists to continue to
cultivate and nourish it. In this way, all those involved will become in some sense responsible
for the exhibition and for its continued existence.

The four exhibitions encompassed by the project are, in part, the result of the meetings with
artists held in Milan from September 2009 onwards. The monthly meetings have involved the
discussion and development of the process for the four exhibitions.

Hangar Bicocca

Leeum Samsung Museum
Seoul, Korea
Curated by Lee Joonn

March 17th - June 5th, 2011


Leeum Samsung Museum

K21, Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf, Germany

March 18th - July 17th, 2011

A group exhibition featuring Kimsooja's piece <Sewing into Walking>, 1994, 3 channel video and fabric installation

Kunstsammlung NRW

San Antonio Museum of Art
San Antonio, Texas

March 12th - July 31st, 2011

The result of collaboration between the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama
Foundation, The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama will conclude a five-year tour
at SAMA — an appropriate location since the Museum houses a fine collection of Himalayan
Buddhist art.

San Antonio Museum of Art

Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall
February 17th - May 20th, 2011

Magasin 3

I Believe in Miracles -
10th anniversary of the Lambert Collection

Collection Lambert En Avignon,
Musée d'Art Contemporain,
Avignon, France

December 12th, 2010 - May 8th , 2011

Collection Lambert

The screening is 30 minutes long, and will be followed by a conversation with the artist along with authors Eleanor Heartney and Jane Farver. Please take a look at our sneak preview of the video at The Moderns Design Studio during the Armory Show via our blog.

Do not miss this unique opportunity to view this mesmerizing film.

Please RSVP to adam@moreart.org if you plan to attend the public screening.

"An Album: Hudson Guild" will also be screened in the Barney Auditorium of New York University on Friday, April 15th. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the artist, curator and author Mary Jane Jacobs, and More Art director Micaela Martegani.This event is not open to the public, but there will be coverage of the conversation, which will be available via our blog post screening.

For more information on More Art, please visit our website.

The Rose Theater
The Cooper Union for the advancement of Science and Art
41 Cooper Square, New York, NY

March 14th, 2011 - 6:00pm

The annual AICA awards ceremony, a fixture of the American art world for more than 25 years,
will take place this year at a new venue, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science
and Art. For the first time, the awards will be presented by former AICA honorees, including
Shirin Neshat, Martin Puryear, Christo and Linda Nochlin, and the ceremony will include video
performances by Kimsooja and William Kentridge. Many artists, including Marina Abramović
and Cai Guo-Qiang, will accompany the curators of their shows as they accept their awards
in person. Elizabeth C. Baker, the former editor of Art in America, will receive a special
Lifetime Achievement award for her distinguished contribution to the field of criticism.

A select number of seats will be available to the public.
Please contact aicausaprogram@gmail.com for more information.


AICA-USA

SVA Theatre
333 West 23rd Street, New York, NY

April 12th, 2011 - 7:00pm

Kimsooja will present 'An Album: Hudson Guild', single channel video projection. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Kimsooja, and Eleanor Heartney and Jane Farver.

An Album: Hudson Guild (2009) is a video projection involving a group of senior citizens from the Hudson Guild Senior Center in Chelsea, New York City. Artist Kimsooja Spent several days at the center and asked the residents about their lives, background, families and memories.

She spent time getting to know them, gaining their trust and support, and then filmed them over a period of two weeks. Most people at the center are immigrants, coming from Latin and Central America, Europe, and Asia; and they range from 60 to over 80. The resulting film is a delicate and profound investigation of human emotions, as each of the participants embarks on his/her own psychological journey, solitary at first and then as a group, which leads them

SVA

Curated by Ruedi Tschudi and Elsbeth Bisig

December 22nd, 2010 - March 12th, 2011

Solo exhibition featuring a selection of new, older, and site specific installations of Kimsooja's work.

Galerie Tschudi

Hangar Bicocca
Milan
Curated by Chiara Bertola with Andrea Lissoni

February 2nd - October 3rd, 2011

The artworks of this second phase move us towards the boundaries of reality and the subsoil,
but also within the History and the catastrophe we are inflicting to Earth.

Hangar Bicocca

Gutstein Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah, GA
Curated by Melissa Messina

February 17th - April 1st, 2011

'The Spirituality of Place' focuses on internationally acclaimed artists working in a variety of
media who explore the sense, spirit and memory of place and reinterpret it poetically through
their art. Locating the spiritual in the urban and natural worlds, artists in this exhibition create
works that ultimately invite the viewer to have a contemplative, and in some cases interactive,
experience with their findings..

SCAD

The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Baltimore,MD
Curated by Niels Van Tomme

March 17th - April 30th, 2011

Where Do We Migrate To? explores contemporary manifestations of required mobility as well
as experiences of displacement and exile, and examines how intensified situations of transition
inexorably undermine our cultural and personal notions of settlement and belonging. In
establishing an imaginative framework that allows artworks to inspire new insights about such
conditions, the exhibition also questions notions of inherence and destiny.

UMBC

Leeum Samsung Museum
Seoul, Korea
Curated by Lee Joonn

March 17th - June 5th, 2011


Leeum Samsung Museum

Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf, Germany

March 18th - July 17th, 2011

A group exhibition featuring Kimsooja's piece <Sewing into Walking>, 1994, 3 channel video and fabric installation

Kunstsammlung NRW

San Antonio Museum of Art
San Antonio, Texas

March 12th - July 31st, 2011

The result of collaboration between the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama
Foundation, The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama will conclude a five-year tour
at SAMA — an appropriate location since the Museum houses a fine collection of Himalayan
Buddhist art.

San Antonio Museum of Art

Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall

February 17th - May 20th, 2011

Magasin 3

Musée d'Art moderne de Saint-Etienne,
France

December 17th, 2010 - April 17th , 2011

Musée d'Art moderne de Saint-Etienne

Herning Museum of Contemporary Art
Herning, Denmark
Curated by Holger Reenberg

November 6th, 2010 - March 13th, 2011

Presenting the world premier of 'Thread Routes' <Peru>, the first chapter of a film project shot
in super 16mm film. This project was made possible by Herning Museum.

Artist Statement:

'Thread Routes' <Peru> is one of the chapters of my fist film project shot in super 16mm film.
It is a non-descriptive and un-narrative documentary that is inspired by a wide spectrum of my
visual experiences and perception of the world. By depicting the nature of textile culture that
includes weaving, knitting, lace making, sewing and spinning, I consider my approach to this
film as a 'visual poem' and a 'visual anthropology' trying to juxtapose and to represent the
structural similarities in performative elements in textile culture with the structure of the nature,
architecture, agriculture and gender relationships in different cultures and geography.
I realized the 'Thread Routes' series as a parallel to the performance work that I have done
since the early 80's."

- Kimsooja, October 20th, 2010 -

Socles du Monde
Herning Museum of Contemporary Art

Seoul Arts Center
Seoul, South Korea

November 4th - December 5th, 2010

Kimsooja will present 'Bottari Truck - Migrateurs', single channel video projection.

Seoul Arts Center

Musée d'art de Joliette
Joliette (Québec) Canada
Curated by Gaëtane Verna

September 26th, 2010 - January 9th, 2011

A solo exhibition presenting 'A Laundry Woman, Yamuna River' & 'Bottari - Alpha Beach'

Musee d'art de Joliette

Royal Academy of Arts
London, England
Curated by Lucy Orta

November 30th, 2010 - January 30th, 2011

Kimsooja will present 'Mumbai: A Laundry Field', four channelvideo projection.

Royal Academy of Arts

La Maison Rouge, Paris
October 23rd, 2010 - January 16th, 2011

La Maison Rouge

Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall
September 11th - December 12th, 2010

Magasin 3

State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
June 28th, - November 28th , 2010

State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki

Musée d'art de Joliette
Joliette (Québec) Canada
Curated by Gaëtane Verna

September 26th - January 9th 2011

A solo exhibition presenting <A Laundry Woman, Yamuna River> & <Bottari - Alpha Beach>

Musée d'art de Joliette

Nuclear Power Plant, Yong Gwang
South Korea
Organized by National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea

Evening Projections - Everyday from September 3 - September 19, 2010

Kimsooja will present <Earth - Water - Fire - Air>, 6 Channel video projection on
the Breakwater as part of the Nuclear Power Plant Art Project - Yong Gwang 2010

www.nppap.or.kr

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein

July 9th - October 3th 2010

Johanniterkirche Feldkirch & Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein. Presenting <Mumbai: A Laundry
Field>, three channel video projection, from the collection of Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

Zamek Art Center
Poznan, Poland
Curated by Tsutomu Mizusawa and Ryszard W. Kluszczyński

September 11th - October 30th 2010

Kimsooja will present a new site specific installation <Mandala: Chant for Auschwitz> in Hitler's
former office at Zamek, Poznan

Beyond Mediations

Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno, Tuscany
September 25th to October 25th 2010

Casa Masaccio

Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall
September 11th 2010 - December 12th 2010

Magasin 3

State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
June 28th 2010 - 20th November 2010

State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki

Mudam Fondation Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
May 26th - November 7th 2010

MUDAM

Works from the Enea Righi Collection, MUSEION - Museum für Moderne und Zeitgenössische Kunst, Bolzano, Italy
March 20th - September 19th 2010

MUSEION

Media Art Sammlung Goetz, ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und MedientechnologieKarlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
June 18th - October 3rd 2010

ZKM

Museu de l'Art, la Pell de Vic traveling to Museo do Mar de Virgo
July 9th - October 1st 2010 then July 5th - October 10th 2010

SECC

Opening Reception - September 3, 2010 at 6:00 p.m

Related Events
- Press Conference - August 31, 2010, Tuesday
- Evening Projections - Everyday from September 3 - September 19, 2010

Venue: Breakwater at Nuclear Power Plant in Yeonggwang, Korea
Organization: National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea
Web address: www.nppap.or.kr

National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea is pleased to announce official opening of Nuclear Power Plant Art Project in Yeonggwang and its first commissioned site-specific installation entitled, Earth - Water - Fire - Air by Kimsooja. This project is the power plant’s first of the public art project series organized to transform the city of Yeonggwang into the place where man and the nature; energy and technology converge. World’s renowned artists are scheduled to create site-specific installations that deal with the nature and energy around the nuclear power station. Utilizing 1,192 meter long, 8 meter wide boardwalk on the breakwater toward a lighthouse at the end, this project marks first of many hand-in-hand efforts to announce its extended venues to other nuclear power plants including the ones in Uljin, Gori, Wolsung, etc.

For the first of the series, Kimsooja’s six channel video installation from Earth-Water-Fire-Air on going project is selected and will be projected every night onto the screens; each of them are spaced approximately 200 meters apart along the water break. The main concept of the series is created based on four fundamental elements of nature: Earth - Water - Fire - Air constantly interrelate to one another as they continue to merge, transform and extinct while organically embrace and exclude to one another. Video footages taken in Lanzarote Island and Guatemalan volcanoes are featured as the artist’s visual manifestation of nirvana in which each four basic elements reincarnate; burning lava flow became rocks and dust that blew in the air. Titles of each videos, Fire of Earth, Water of Earth, Earth of Water, Air of Fire, Air of Earth, Air of Water, Fire of Air, Water of Air support such interchanging idea that characteristics of one element is created by the other elements that is related to eastern philosophy, such as Zen Buddhism and Taoism. The artist questions the nuclear power energy as a tool that has two sides of blade revealing the power of yin and yang energy that recreate both productive and destructive energy. This project challenges us to relocate to our origin and to contemplate the peaceful and productive use of the natural energy for the only earth we live on.

This project is organized and hosted by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea and Membership Society of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea. Organizers thank to sponsors: Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power & Hanjin Shipping for their generous support in realizing the project.

- Press Conference - August 31, 2010, Tuesday
- Opening Reception - September 3, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at Nuclear Power Plant in Yeonggwang
- Evening Projections - Everyday from September 3 - September 19, 2010
- Transportation to the venue is available. For reservation, call 82-2-536-7195

email curator@kanarts.com

For additional information, images, or to request an interview, please contact our media partner, KAN
email curator@kanarts.com
tel. 82- 10- 8748- 0679

Three Channel Video Projection, 2007

Solo show at The Church of St. John, Feldkirch
Selection from the collection of the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

Opening: July 9th, 2010
Exhibition: July 9th - October 3rd, 2010

Mudam Fondation Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
May 26th - November 7th 2010

MUDAM - Luxembourg

Palazzo Ducale, Genoa
March 12th - June 2010
Traveling to The State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece,
June - November 2010 then Museum of Modern Art, Saint Etienne, France,
December 2010 - March 2011

Videokunst im Museum Folkwang, Museum Folkwan, Essen Germany
June 5th - August 1st 2010

Museum Folkwang

MUSEION - Museum für Moderne und Zeitgenössische Kunst, Bolzano, Italy
March 20th - September 19th 2010

Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Bolzano

Media Art Sammlung Goetz, ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie
Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
June 18th - October 3rd 2010

Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe

Museu de l'Art, la Pell de Vic
July 9th - October 1st 2010
traveling to Museo do Mar de Virgo July 5th - October 10th 2010

Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales

on the occasion of the 'Chaotic Harmony, Contemporary Korean Photography'
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara CA
July 3rd - September 19th 2010 (sceening dates will be announced soon)

Santa Barbara Museum of Art

Seven Channel Video Projection, 2009

Solo Show at Atelier Hermès, Seoul
Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
Curated by Sung Won Kim

This piece was co- commissioned by MIAC/Lanzarote Museo Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo, Centro de Arte, Cultura y Turismo, Cabibldo de Lanzarote, and the Foundation d'entreprise Hermès

Opening: January 8th, 2010
Exhibition: January 9th - March 23rd, 2010

Kimsooja, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, United Kingdom, Curated by Katherine Welsh, October 5, 2009 - January 17, 2010, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art Website

EARTH-WATER-FIRE-AIR, International Museum of Contemporary Art (MIAC), La Bienal de Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, Curated by Olivia Maria Rubio, October 13, 2009 - January 13, 2010,Biennale of Lanzarote Website

Dress Codes: ICP Triennial, The International Center for Photography, New York, NY, October 2, 2009 - January 17, 2010, The International Center for Photography Website

Your Bright Future, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas, on view
November 21, 2009 - February 14, 2010, Museum of Fine Arts Houston

Faces & Facts: Korean Contemporary Art in New York, Queens Museum of Art, December 6, 2009 - February 21st, 2010, Queens Museum of Art, Faces & Facts

Fragile, Fields of Empathy, Daejon Museum of Art, Korea,
December 22, 2009 - March 21, 2010, Daejon Museum of Art

Edge of Elsewhere, Sydney Festival 2010, Sydney, Australia, Januaury 16 2010 - March 7, 2010, Sydney Festival 2010 Website

Cue, Vancouver Art Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Theatre, curated by Daina Augaitis and Christopher Eamon, January 22 - March 21, 2010, Website for Vancouver Art Gallery

Investigations of a Dog, Works from the FACE (Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe) Collections Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy, October 21, 2009 - February 7, 2010, Website for Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe

The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, Frost Museum of Art, Miami, Florida. The opening will be October 9; the show continues through January 10, 2010, Frost Museum of Art Website

Le Meilleur des Mondes, Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM), Luxembourg, January 30 – May 23, 2010, Musée d'Art Moderne Website

Kimsooja's feature in Art 21's Season 5 (2009) episode "Systems" can be viewed on the Art 21 Website supported by Korea Foundation, Seoul

International Museum of Contemporary Art
Canary Islands, Spain
Curated by Olivia Maria Rubio
Director: Maria José Alcántara Palop

Kimsooja will present a new comissioned work "Earth-Water-Fire-Air" for the Biennale of Lanzarote.

Biennale of Lanzarote Website

Nuit Blanche, Facade of the Hôtel de Ville, Paris

October 3 at 6 PM- October 4 at 6 AM, 2009

Annual all night arts festival
Alexia Fabre, conservateur en chef du MAC/VAL
Frank Lamy, chargé des expositions temporaires du MAC/VAL

Nuit Blanche Website

United Kingdom
Curated by Katherine Welsh

October 5, 2009 - January 17, 2010

BALTIC presents Korean artist Kimsooja's first solo exhibition in the UK. The exhibition includes the major works A Needle Woman and A Laundry Woman-Yamuna River, India.  A Needle Woman, composed of eight simultaneous videos, documents the artist as she stands motionless in the crowded streets of Lagos, Nigeria, Mexico City, Cairo, New York, Delhi, Tokyo, Shanghai, and London,  putting the viewer at the centre of a global space. The world weaves past the artist's needle-like figure, acting as an instrument, a medium that establishes connections, relationships and experience, expands time and seeks universal truths. A Laundry Woman-Yamuna River, India, considers nature, stillness and movement and the cycle of life and death as the river slides by, picking up flotsam and washing away the earth. The works in the exhibition question our notion of the self and contemplate a universality that hints at a possible truth of existence.

Baltic Center for Contemporary Art Website

The International Center for Photography
New York, NY
Curated by Christopher Phillips

October 2, 2009 - January 17, 2010

The International Center for Photography Website

The Garage, Moscow
Curated by Jean-Hubert Martin

September 24th - October 24, 2009

The Moscow Biennale Website

Kimsooja is featured in the Season 5 (2009) episode Systems, premiering Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 10:00 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).

Art21 Access '09, our international screening initiative that includes hundreds of public screenings events across the world. Art21 Access '09 is partnering with over 400 venues that will host over 567 screenings around the world, from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between September 28 and October 30, 2009. Events are free and open to the public. To attend a public screening please visit: Art21Access '09 mini site

Works from the FACE (Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe) Collections
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Turin, Italy

October 21, 2009 - February 7, 2010

Website for Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe

- Mumbai, A Laundry Field at Le Moulin, Continua Gallery, through October 4th, 2009, Le Moulin Website

-The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2009: LIVE and LET LIVE: Creators of Tomorrow, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum and its vicinity, Fukuoka, Japan, through November 23, 2009, Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale Website

-Art Tells the Times Works by Women Artists, Shiseido Gallery 90th Anniversary Exhibition, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, through October 18, 2009, Shiseido Gallery Website

-In-finitum, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy, through November 9, 2009

-The View from Elsewhere/Small Acts, Gallery of Modern Art | Australian Cinémathèque, Brisbane, Australia, Brisbane, Australia, through November 15th, 2009, Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane Website

-The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, Frost Museum of Art, Miami, Florida. The opening will be October 9; the show continues through January 10, 2010, Frost Museum of Art Website

Galleria Continua / Le Moulin
46 rue de la Ferte Gaucher
Boissey-le-Chatel
Seine-et-Marne

Galleria Continua website

June 27^th, 2009 - October 4^th, 2009

Private Viewing: Saturday, June 27^th, from 6:00pm - midnight
6 pm: tour of the exhibition and cocktails, 9 pm - midnight: rustic banquet and DJ Set on the river bank

On Saturday, June 27 ^th, there is a courtesy bus from Paris leaving at 5pm, meeting in front of the entrance of Jardin des Plantes, Place Valhubert 75005 Paris. Metro Gare d'Austerlitz, lines 5, 10 or RER C, or Bastille, or Bercy. The bus will return to Paris around midnight.

*Please RSVP as soon as possible if you would like reserve a spot on the bus. Bus transport is available for this day only by prior booking: lemoulin@galleriacontinua.com

Le Moulin is open from June 27 to October 4, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 12 noon to 7pm.

2^nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art: "Praxis: Art in Times of Uncertainty"
Bey Hamaam, Paradeisos Baths
Egnatia Street & Aristotelous Square
Thessaloniki, Greece

Thessaloniki Biennale 2 website

May 24^th, 2009 - September 27^th, 2009

"Praxis: Art in Times of Uncertainty" is the theme of this year's 2^nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, which is organized by the State Museum of Contemporary Art from May 24 to September 27, 2009, with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

In his seminal novel "A Tale of Two Cities" (1859), about life in Paris and London, the English novelist Charles Dickens wrote 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness - we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.' aptly capturing the mood of the time. Almost a hundred and fifty years later the feeling of disillusionment, the failure of politics to handle the 'big' problems, the recent financial collapse, the assault on the environment and a general sense of individual and collective alienation which a global society has not been able to rectify all seem palpable. Might we be the observers of a universal depreciation of the system of thought, of an irreversible collapse of ideologies?

In the field of cultural production the dominance of the art market, the ineffectiveness of cultural theory and the over-theorisation of culture seem to have dissociated art from real life. In his provocatively titled book "After Theory", the English theorist Terry Eagleton claims not the death of theory, but the redefinition of its goals and fields of research. Perhaps this time of uncertainty could be the moment for the reconsideration of the intrinsic worth of artistic practice. The moment to explore art as a privileged space for relatively free expression of ideas and for an alternative view of the world and the social environment. An art that goes back to life, back to Praxis, to the creative activity that contributes to the formation of a political view and to a new way of thinking and being. According to ancient Chinese philosophy, revolution is realignment with the order of the world. Could this be the time to seek a true revolution? Can art provide a window of opportunity in these uncertain times?
- Gabriela Salgado, Bisi Silva, Syrago Tsiara, November 2008

Co-curators under the general title "Praxis: Art in Times of Uncertainty" are Bisi Silva from Nigeria (Director of the Centre of Contemporary Art in Lagos), Gabriela Salgado from Argentina (Curator of Public Projects at Tate Modern and Independent Curator), and Syrago Tsiara, Director of the Thessaloniki Center of Contemporary Art

Palazzo Fortuny
San Marco 3780, San Beneto
Venice

In-finitum website

June 6^th, 2009 - November 15^th, 2009

The Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and the Vervoordt Foundation present "In-finitum", which will be held in Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, from June 6 through November 15, 2009. It will guide visitors from the soul of the unfinished to the border of the infinite, a spiritual journey through works of art, science and philosophy. "In-finitum" (organized by Axel Vervoordt, Daniela Ferretti, Giandomenico Romanelli and Francesco Poli) is the final segment of the trilogy created by Axel Vervoordt; it began with "Artempo: Where time becomes art" (Venice, 2007) and continued with "Academia: Qui es-tu?" (Paris, 2008).

Questioning 'infinity' is a spiritual journey. The human condition strives for perfection, hungers for completion. In this quest for the untouchable, the unimaginable, the incomprehensible, man faces his limitations and struggles with the unachievable. Infinity is found in this part of incompleteness, the void, the recipient and source of the all and the everything, of the vacuum and the nothing. The infinite is a never-ending road to completion, knowledge and enlightenment and has inspired intellectuals, artists, scientists and literati since the beginning of time. Their discoveries and writings, artistic impressions and thoughts will define another segment of the In-finitum exhibition.

"In-finitum" will present works by Giovanni Anselmo, Natvar Bhavsar, Pierre BonnardB, erlinde de Bruyckere, Michael Borremans, Alberto Burri, Alexander Calder, Paul Cèzanne, Antonio Canova, Eugène Delacroix, Ray & Charles Eames, Lucio Fontana, Adam Fuss, Giuseppe Gabellone, Francesco Hayez, Ann-Veronica Janssens, Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer, Kimsooja, Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni, Brice Marden, Fausto Melotti, Mario Merz, Joan Miró, Tatsuo Miyajima, Vic Muniz, Renato Nicolodi, Roman Opalka, Palagio Pelagi, Pablo Picasso, Otto Piene, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Guido Reni, Gerhard Richter, George Romney, Thomas Ruff, Kazuo Shiraga, Ettore Spaletti, Vassilikis Takis, Diana Thater, Dirk Van De Len, Jef Verheyen, Rik Wouters, Gilberto Zorio.

The catalogue is published by MER. Paper Kunsthalle, edited by Axel Vervoordt, with articles by Francesco Poli, Giandomenico Romanelli, Eddi De Wolf and Norbert Jocks and a conversation between Axel Vervoordt and Tatsuro Miki; graphic layout Studio Luc Derycke.

Galleria Continua, Le Moulin, Paris
46 rue de la Ferté Gaucher
77169 Boissy-le-Châtel, (Seine-et-Marne), Paris, France

Galleria Continua website

June 27^th, 2009 - October 4^th, 2009, on Friday, to Sunday from 12pm to 7pm
OPENING: June 27^th, 2009, 6pm - midnight


Le Moulin will spotlight four solo exhibitions of the following artists: Kimsooja, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Jorge Macchi, Manuela Sedmach
For Saturday June 27, there is free bus transport from Paris to Le Moulin. At 6pm: tour of the exhibition and cocktails, from 9pm to midnight: rustic banquet and DJ Set on the river bank.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

LACMA website

MFAH website

June 28^th, 2009 - September 20^th, 2009 (LACMA)
November 22^th, 2009 - February 14^th, 2010 (MFAH)

LACMA and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) will present the first major museum exhibition in the United States to focus on contemporary art from South Korea. The exhibition features work by a generation of artists who have emerged since the mid-1980s (some well-known and others on the brink of recognition), working on the cutting edge of international art trends and within a distinctly Korean context. Featuring site-specific installations as well as video, computer animation, and sculpture, the exhibition represents each artist through a large-scale installation piece or substantial body of work.

Curators: Lynn Zelevansky, Contemporary Art, LACMA; Christine Starkman, Curator of Asian Art, MFAH; and Kim Sunjung, Director Samuso, Seoul, South Korea; Consulting Curator, Hyonjeong Kim Han, Associate Curator, Chinese and Korean Art, LACMA.

This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in association with SAMUSO: Space for Contemporary Art, Seoul. It is made possible by grants from The Korea Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Musée d'Art Moderne de Saint Etienne
Rue Fernand Léger, 42270, Saint-Priest-en-Jarez
traveling to Palazzo dei Falconieri, Rome
traveling to Daejon Museum of Art, Korea

MAM St. Etienne website
Daejon Museum of Art website

May 15^th, 2009 - August 16^th, 2009 (MAM St. Etienne)

The FRAGILE exposition presents a selection of a forty of international artists, of which the works indicate a vision both intimate and anthropological of the experience of contemporary life. Through the usage of various media (paint, sculpture, drawing, video, installation), they celebrate the life in what she has of more banal one and of essential one. Neglecting severe absolutism of the definite structures, the different plastic methodologies of these artists reflect an interest for subtle events and microphones narratives, within limitless complexity of our daily one. Curated by Lorand Hegyi.

Artists participating: Ruth Barabash, Massimo Bartolini, Frauke Boggasch, Marina Bolla, Rebecca Bournigault, Yves Bresson, Davide Cantoni, Alice Cattaneo, Loris Cecchini, Dae-Jin Choi, Tessa Manon den Uyl, Karin Fauchard, Roland Flexner, Andrea Fogli, Kevin Francis Gray, Carlos Garaicoa, Francesco Gennari, Ugo Giletta, Paolo Grassino, Myoung-Ok Han, Siobhan Hapaska, Bernd Koller, Jan Kopp, Insook Kwon, Kimsooja, Denica Lehocka, Eric Manigaud, Dacia Manto, Carla Mattii, Sabrina Mezzaqui, Helen Mirra, Liliana Moro, Vik Muniz, Sirous Namazi, Isabel Nolan, Marina Paris, Pavel Pepperstein, Marina Perez Simao, Francoise Pètrovitch, Laszlo Laszlo Revesz, Anila Rubiku, Hiraki Sawa, Fabian Seiz, Francesco Sena, Kati Szil, Kei Takemura, Mariusz Tarkawian, Barthelemy Toguo, Paul Wallach, Lois Weinberger, Sookyung Yee

Franzensfeste, Fortezza Alto Adige
Crispistrasse 15
Bolzano, Trentino, Bozen

Franzensfeste / Fortress website

May 9^th, 2009 - October 30^th, 2009

Losing one's way, losing one's bearings in freedom, breaking out of the secure, being locked up in the secure - the Franzensfeste fortress, with its heavy walls, underground passages, loopholes and observation ports is a dream backdrop for the subject of the 2009 regional exhibition. The notion of "Labyrinth :: Freedom" is visible with every step, the fortress - "built for an enemy who never came" (Josef Rohrer) - tells the story of the defensive culture of Tyrol which began long before 1809 and began to show its internal rifts long before 2009. "Labyrinth :: Freedom" is not an exhibition that is indebted to the memory of the Tyrolean struggle for freedom of 1809, but rather traces the freedom myth in forms of freedom that change over time and with their subject. Freedom is historical, but also timeless, volatile and yet contemporary: it may be the freedom of a country or of an individual. Instead of one large history, stories are told and interwoven with historical documents, personal narratives, artistic protests. The 2009 regional exhibition is not intended to recount or document what freedom is, but to stimulate us to think where freedom begins, where it ends, where freedom can be unfreedom and unfreedom may possibly even be freedom.

Franzensfeste is a mysterious place: this bulwark was planned under Francis I and handed over to the Austrian military by Emperor Ferdinand I in 1838. Just a few decades later, fortresses were obsolete as a form of military engineering, and no fighting ever took place there. In this monumental construction, with its endless corridors, vaults, storerooms and casemates, the exhibition analyses the numerous facets of the oft-abused term "freedom" - a labyrinth in which visitors can get lost, for the ways to "freedom" are always crooked and never signposted, sometimes misleading, sometimes even oppressive and dangerous. The exhibition does not recount any tales of heroes, but rather just stories; it offers no answers, but rather asks many questions: What is freedom? What is unfreedom? Where does freedom begin and where does it end? An entertaining, agreeable, exciting and exhilarating area to reflect, or an exhibition, where you can enjoyably lose and find yourself again.

The curators are Marion Piffer Damiani (art), Bernhard Kathan (objects of everyday culture) and Hans Karl Peterlini (narratives and stories).

Kimsooja, Lotus: Zone of Zero, 2008, Kimsooja - Lotus: Zone of Zero, 2008, Rotunda at Galerie Ravenstein, Approx. 2000 lotus lanterns, Tibetan, Gregorian, and Islamic chants, Photos by Fabrice Kada, Courtesy of the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea, first exhibited in a different configuration at the Palais Rameau, Lille, 2003, Courtesy Dijon Consortium

Lotus: Zone of Zero, 2008
Rotunda at Galerie Ravenstein
Rue Ravenstein/Ravensteinstraat, Brussels

BOZAR website

October 10^th, 2008 - January 18^th, 2009
OPENING: October 10^th, 2008

The site specific installation Lotus: Zone of Zero, 2008, is composed of approximately two thousand lanterns, in the shape of lotus flowers, expanding outward upon a circular structural space, was specifically conceived for the Rotunda of the Raverstein Gallery. This piece was first exhibited in another structure at the Palais Rameau in Lille in 2003, which was commissioned by Dijon Consortium. By relocating the installation to the Rotunda of the Ravenstein gallery, Kimsooja wishes to address the public, and invites them to experience a moment of peace and contemplation of the harmonized world. The focus on anonymity recurs often in Kimsooja’s work, reflecting each individual in universality. Her use of the lotus flower forms, which are often used in Korean Buddhist Temples, are a reference to the state of mandala. Each sound element, which are Tibetan, Gregorian and Islamic chants, merges together in the center of the space, enhancing the sense of belonging to a universal, spiritual world, that inspires us to look within and reflect on the current political and religious conflicts within the world. Although her work is devoid of direct political connotations currently affecting the world, Kimsooja poses these questions to challenge us, and invites the audience to locate themselves within all the different spiritual zones that co-exist in a single space, which can provide the keys for understanding the world in which we live.

Lotus: Zone of Zero, 2008, is an invitation to a journey of discovery in which the artist provides space and time where the audience observes the differences and similarities of cultural, religious, and political awareness. Kimsooja offers us an installation which, above and beyond its aesthetic qualities, is a call for peace, love and understanding amongst human beings.

Excerpted text by Ann Flas

MAC/VAL, Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne
Place de la Libération
Vitry-sur-Seine, Paris, France

MAC/VAL website

August 15^th, 2008 - March, 2009
OPENING: October 9^th, 2008

The forceful, singular personality of the MAC/VAL collection comes across in a new display which is organized as an invitation to an inner journey. This unique grouping provides museum visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in the imagination of artists shown in an innovative presentation entitled I will return. Paintings, of course, rounded out by photographs, videos, and installations. The pieces are the result of an ambitious acquisition policy and are compelling to all audiences. MAC/VAL houses a collection of unique and remarkable diversity, built over the past twenty years with unstinting commitment and with a close, cooperative relationship with artists. The collection includes some 1,500 works and is still expanding.

Travel, depart, leave, haul, imagine, dream, hope, search, find, build, complete, return... Action verbs mark this third presentation of the permanent collection, weaving a narrative through works of art, a story of art and life. This new display of the MAC/VAL collection presents recent acquisitions, works never before displayed, and new works directly linked to the history of the museum - via foreign artists- in-residence. Its original approach highlights stories of movement, exile, travel, and dreams - the stories of people who in brutal, involuntary, or poetic fashion, commence a long journey, the journey of their lives. What is pursued, and what is built at the end of the road?

MAC/VAL residencies mark the Presentation: MAC/VAL artistic residencies offer foreign artists the opportunity to develop a project and produce an original artwork during the course of their stay. This is a way for the museum to support new art, foster inter-cultural dialogue, and learn from diverse viewpoints. Artists are encouraged to create works giving rise to a real dialogue with the museum’s history, its collection, and its community. As part of the third presentation of the collection, three artists will exhibit works produced during residencies in 2007 to early 2008. They are: Shilpa Gupta from India, with her work on memory; Kimsooja, a New-York based Korean artist addressing exile; and finally Michel de Broin from Quebec, who uses maquettes to convey parallel projects, potential futures, impossible pasts and improbable presents.

Dashanzi 798 #8503, 2 Jiuxianqiao Road,
Chaoyang Dst., 100015, Beijing

Galleria Continua website

September 4th, 2008 - December 27th, 2008

The work Mumbai: A Laundry Field, showing at Galleria Continua, Beijing, in a 4 channel video format, evolved from the series A Needle Woman (1999-2001 and 2005) and a Laundry Woman (2000). 

“A needle being an extension of the body, and a thread being the extension of the mind. The traces of the mind stay always in the fabric, but the needle leaves the site when its mediation is complete. The needle is a medium, a mystery, a reality, a hermaphrodite, a barometer, a moment of Zen.” 

In this ’materialistic’ society of which we are part, where individualism prevails, and people are driven by the desire to consume, Kimsooja’s minimalist and conceptual approach represents a brave gesture of removal, of detachment from life’s predominant and corrupting attitudes. 

Excerpted text by Federica Beltrame, from the catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition. 

Shiseido Gallery
Tokyo Ginza Shiseido Bldg., B1
Ginza 8-8-3, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061

Shiseido Gallery website

August 23rd, 2008 - October 19th, 2008
Shiseido Gallery is pleased to announce our exhibition, Kimsooja A Mirror Woman: The Sun & The Moon. This is a solo exhibition of Kimsooja's newest works, which she shot in India in the beginning of this year. 

Kimsooja's newest work, A Mirror Woman: The Sun & The Moon, is a four channel video work in which she filmed the sun, the moon, and the ocean in Goa, India. This work is a dynamic piece that deals with nature, with the sun and the moon, and high and low tides working in tandem as perfect examples of the ying and yang relationship, a theme that Kimsooja approaches in many of her works. In addition, we will be debuting her new large scale photographic works, The Sun - Unfolded. 

This project was produced with generous support from Shiseido Co., Ltd. 

La Chapelle de l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
14 Rue Bonaparte
Paris, France

ENSBA website

September 10th, 2008 - November 23rd, 2008 Academia: Qui es-tu? , taking place at La Chapelle de l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, from September 10 until November 23, 2008, is the second part of a trilogy which started with the exhibitionArtempo: When time becomes Art and which ran at the Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, Italy, between June and November last year. The trilogy (which will be completed in 2009 with the Venice-based L’Infinito del Non Finito) is the brainchild of Belgian collector and dealer Axel Vervoordt, who will also curate Academia. 

Important works from El Anatsui, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Christian Boltanski, Louise Bourgeois, Tony Cragg, Désirée Dolron, Robert Filliou, Henri Foucault, Adam Fuss, John Gerrard, Kees Goudzwaard, Cai Guo Qiang, Thomas Houseago, Anish Kapoor, Kimsooja, ORLAN, Gabriel Orozco, Hans Op de Beeck, Kazuo Shiraga, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Luc Tuymans and Koen van den Broek are included in the exhibition. 

The Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse
Bronx, NYC

The Bronx Museum of Art website

September 14th, 2008 - January 25, 2009
Organized by guest curator Lydia Yee, Street Art, Street Life examines the street as subject matter, venue, and source of inspiration for artists and photographers from the late 1950s to the present.

This far ranging exhibition, one of the largest to consider the subject, includes street photography; documentation of performance, events, and artworks presented in the street; works using material from the street; and examples of street culture by more than thirty artists including William Klein, Lee Friedlander, Raymond Hains, Vito Acconci, Martha Rosler, Sophie Calle, David Hammons, Jamel Shabazz, Kimsooja, and Francis Alÿs, among others.

The San Francisco Art Institute
Pacific Perspectives Screenings: Fall 2008 Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series
Lecture Hall, 800 Chestnut Street campus
San Francisco, California

The San Francisco Art Institute website

September 22nd, October 22nd, October 29th, November 12th, and December 1st, 2008
First shown at SFAI in the spring of 2008 as part of that semester’s Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series, To Breathe/Respirare: Invisible Mirror/Invisible Needle (2006, 10:01 min. loop) will be screened, with sound from her Weaving Factory (2004), before select Fall 2008 Visiting Artists and Scholars lectures. The screenings are presented as part of the SFAI Exhibitions and Public Programs series Pacific Perspectives. 

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein website

September 26th, 2008 - January 18th, 2009
The exhibition about transcendency and the relation of body and soul. How does liveliness arise? How do we grasp reality today? How do we distinguish between the ”I“ and the world? In the 19th century, the image the natural sciences had of the world was defined by materialism, according to which everything consisted of substance, or mass-based material. In this view, man was a selfcontained entity, an autonomous self who by means of his intellect looked out on the world as something external, something separated from him. The insights gained by the natural sciences, not to mention neurobiology and psychology, since the beginning of the 20th century, have given rise to a completely new view of the world. Materialism and the world of objectifications have been replaced by oscillating quanta, by an immaterial view of the world as inseparable from us. Matter is essentially no longer matter.

The exhibition Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door explores contemporary artistic representations of body/soul, body/mind, matter/consciousness. It shows how, since the 1960s, artists have intensely focused on corporeality, on the border between the ”I“ and the world, between the individual and the social, and have investigated how our realities are structured. On show are works by Marina Abramovic/Ulay, Absalon, Samuel Beckett, Joseph Beuys, Andrea Fraser, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Dan Graham, Kimsooja, Korpys/Löffler, Thomas Lehnerer, Matt Mullican, Bruce Nauman, Gabriel Orozco, Kristine Oßwald, and Gina Pane. The exhibition has been organized by the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, curated by Christiane Meyer-Stoll. 

La Fábrica Galería
Madrid, Spain

La Fábrica Galería website

September 11th, 2008 - October 25th, 2008
La Fábrica Galería is to celebrate the first five years of its existence by launching the 2008-2009 season with the exhibition A Space of Time. The show will feature recent photographic and video projects by some of the leading figures on the current contemporary art scene. The show features the latest work by artists represented by La Fábrica Galería: Marina Abramovic, Richard Billingham, Chen Chieh-Jen, Paul Graham, Zhang Huan, Kimsooja, Annika Larsson and Antoni Muntadas. New projects by Marina Abramovic, 8 Lessons on Emptiness with a Happy End, and Chen Chieh-Jen, People Pushing, will be on display.
A Space of Time will include Kimsooja's polytypch To Breathe - A Mirror Woman (2008), four light boxes with different views of the site-specific installation produced in 2006 for the Palacio de Cristal in the Retiro Park in Madrid. Kimsooja left the architectural structure of the building totally intact, incorporating it as an integral part of the installation by placing a mirror on the floor, which acted as a multiplier and unifier of the space. Using a bare minimum of elements - translucent diffraction film to cover the vault and entire glazed structure of the palace, the mirror on the floor and the sound of her own breathing - the artist immersed visitors in a transforming experience and invited them to experiment with both the mind and senses by activating their imagination and sensory perceptions. 

Hillside Terrace
Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

The Missing Peace Project website

October 17th, 2008 - November 9th, 2008
The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama is the result of a collaboration between the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama Foundation. We see this project as a unique opportunity to explore the idea of art as an interpretation of, and a catalyst for, peace. Through the artist's work, we also hope to broaden appreciation for the Dalai Lama and the principles he embodies. The project and exhibition title is an evocative play on words - peace will always be elusive, or missing, in our world, but the Dalai Lama consistently shows that dedicating oneself to peace is anything but pointless. The word 'portrait' is used very loosely. Artists were given the freedom to explore the full life of the Dalai Lama; each 'portrait' was the result of personal interpretation.

TSA 11th Biennial Symposium
Textiles as Cultural Expressions
Honolulu, Hawai'i

Textile Society of America 2008 Symposium website

September 24th - 27th, 2008
Renowned contemporary artist Kimsooja presented the keynote address A Needle Woman: Dimension of a needle, at the opening session of the TSA 11th Biennial Symposium in Honolulu, Hawai'i on Thursday, September 25, 2008. Inspired by the needle work of her grandmother in Korea, Kimsooja has set out on a journey that often uses textiles to expressively address issues of the displaced self - of migration, refugees, war, difficulty, and the passing from one border to another. 

Kimsooja (Taegu Korea, 1957), lives and works in New York, since 1999. She studied at the Painting Department of Hong-Ik University & Graduate School in Seoul. Her numerous solo-exhibitions include Kimsooja at Magasin 3, Stockholm, Musèe d’art contemporaine de Lyon, Museum Kunst Palast, PAC Milan, P.S.1/MOMA, New York. In addition, she realized several site-specific projects, most recently at Crystal Palace, Museo Nacional Centro de Reina Sofia, Madrid; and Teatro la Fenice, in conjunction with a joint solo exhibition at Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa. 

Kimsooja (Taegu, Korea 1957) is one of the most renowned artists on the international artistic scene. She is currently living and working in New York, and her work has been exhibited throughout Asia, America and Europe. The artist offers installations, photographs, performancesand videos. Her subject matter includes topics such as nomadism, a key point in her work, the relationship between oneself and the other, the roles of women in our world… expressing the importance of the human being in the chaotic world in which we live, with its solitude and the fleetingness of existence. This time, Kimsooja has prepared a site- specific installation for the Palacio de Cristal (Exhibition Hall).

In her project for the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid, To Breathe - A Mirror Woman, composed for the space and soundtrack The Weaving Factory, 2004; the artist wanted to leave the structural architecture of the building untouched so that it would become a part of the mirrors installed on the floor, in an effort to increase and unite space. With minimal elements - a translucent diffraction film that covers the vault, the entire glass structure of the palace, mirror that covers the floor and the sound of her breathing; the artist brings us into a transforming experience and invites us to experiment both with our minds and with sounds - to put our senses and imagination into gear.

The outside light that filters through the glass of the pavilion reflects on the diffraction film and diffuses into rainbow spectrums, transforming the external panorama seen from within the palace, where the entire structure and rays of colour are reflected on the mirror floor. The effect is particularly impressive on sunny days. The natural light, colour, and sound are all ethereal elements that fill the space. There are no objects to interrupt the sight. The artist’s breathing from the performance, The Weaving Factory, fills the space, bouncing back again and again against the mirror and expanding throughout the entire building to melt with it, breaking down barriers of space and time.

In the first part of the performance, her breathing is gentle, slow and barely perceptible; but little by little, is becomes deeper and faster, acquiring a dizzy rhythm and causing discomfort and anguish. Several emotional states are perceptible through her breathing, which becomes one with her artistic work. In the second, you can barely notice the breathing, which becomes part of the background. The tone, modulation and rhythm have changed. From rebellion to joy, anguish to enjoyment, doubt to recognition; all are states the viewer perceives through the exhibit. Kimsooja invites us to travel within: the space, within the rainbow, within the mirror, within our own breathing - in other words, within ourselves. It is during that trip within that we finally face the other that is always present in her work - as the mirror connects oneself and the other, and reflects the other that is inside us all. The mirror attracts and reflects, and that reflection is the means to interiorize oneself. Kimsooja speaks to us about the relationship of our own body within space and makes art an experience for the body, mind, senses and imagination.

Kimsooja’s work seems engulfed by silence. Both her videos from her performances, as well as the installations with clothing and even the video installations with sound, seem to beat the hope of isolation - of mediation. It is an invitation to escape the chaos and surrounding worldly noise for a moment, and to thereby re-discover ourselves and question our relationship with others; to contemplate our place in the world and face the essential problems of our own existence. The expositive space as sanctuary.

Shiseido Gallery
Tokyo Ginza Shiseido Bldg., B1
Ginza 8-8-3, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061

Shiseido Gallery website

August 23rd, 2008 - October 19th, 2008
OPENING: August 22nd, 2008
Shiseido Gallery is pleased to announce our exhibition, Kimsooja A Mirror Woman: The Sun & The Moon. This is a solo exhibition of Kimsooja's newest works, which she shot in India in the beginning of this year. 

Kimsooja's newest work, A Mirror Woman: The Sun & The Moon, is a four channel video work in which she filmed the sun, the moon, and the ocean in Goa, India. This work is a dynamic piece that deals with nature, with the sun and the moon, and high and low tides working in tandem as perfect examples of the ying and yang relationship, a theme that Kimsooja approaches in many of her works. In addition, we will be debuting her new large scale photographic works, The Sun - Unfolded.

Doris Von Drathen's essay, Standing at the Zero Point (2008), addresses this dynamic four channel video in the following excerpt:

Within the confines of our linear notion of experience and imagination, the conjunction of sun and moon is merely an idea and, to us, unthinkable. Exceptional constellations of planets, such as the eclipses of the sun and the moon, are, by their very essence, quite different, for these do not feature the two celestial bodies at the very same time, but more the moment of shadow when the one is moving in front of the other and robbing it of light. The actual conjunction of sun and moon bursts the bounds of our reality, in a way that has always been conceived as metaphor for expressing the transgression of the impossible, the transgression of the duality of day and night that occludes all formulae and laws of time and place. The conjunction of sun and moon is the icon of impossibility. 

When, in her video installation A Mirror Woman: The Sun & The Moon, Kimsooja lets us experience precisely this impossibility on screen, she is not working with tricks. The sequence of images unfolds in real time, for the full duration of sunset and moonrise. One could almost say that the work of art in itself, however, remains invisible: it is the very point where Kimsooja is standing and observing the events in the sky. The artist is positioned on a spot, which is precisely gauged by seismograph, in fact at the zero point of a place, in that splice of space between the planets, in the chink between the orbits of sun and moon, on the verge of consciousness, at the brink of the mirror. The rest is waiting, with a fixed camera and an open frame, so that the rise of the moon and the setting of the sun are able to overlie one another.

The singularity of the work of Kimsooja, however, is that she does not illustrate such an idea as cosmic breath or universal principle that might well apply to the creation as a whole, but vice-versa, she derives it from an “almost” everyday observation. For were one to gaze like Kimsooja and her camera, one would after all be able to observe this conjunction of sun and moon, this respiratory chorale of the planetary orbits and the movement of the ocean every single month. 

This project was made possible with the generous support of Shiseido Co., Ltd. 

Light & Sie Gallery
Dallas, Texas
Curated by Georges Armaos

Light and Sie Gallery website

July 31st, 2008 - September 6th, 2008

Artist include: Vanessa BEECROFT, Ingrid CALAME, Jeremy KOST, Joseph DADOUNE, Todd EBERLE, Kimsooja, David REED, Thomas RUFF, Hedi SLIMANE, Dan WALSH

June 14th, 2008 - September 7th, 2008

Kimsooja's new project is launched at the exhibition as a gesture towards the future, to what may become of a remote old house. The house has been left on its own, unused, beaten by the weather for dozens of years, like so many similar modest buildings around Lofoten. With The House Project, Kimsooja focuses our attention on the singular instead of the spectacular, in the landscape and its inhabitation, and invites us to imagine its potential. 

At LIAF 08, nothing else is presented for the moment than the house as it is, as an object in itself. The long term plan, however, is to restore the house into a simple accommodation and studio space that allows for retreat, artistic work and meditation in isolation. Temporarily, this may offer visitors also an opportunity of focused contemplation of art works and processes, the place and its surrounding environment. The project aims, thus, to allow for continuity in both the artist's and LIAF's engagement with, and non-intrusive contribution, to the local environment. 

Kimsooja will also present in the exhibition a previously unseen installation comprising of two works: a video Sewing into Walking: Kyungju, and a sculptural floor piece Bottari. In both of the works, traditional colourful Korean bedclothes take centre stage, as references to mobility (as transportable bundles of belongings), as well as suggestive of intimacy and privacy. The floor installation includes locally collected second-hand clothing as well, weaving the local into the global world of migration, and making space for associations of home that cross cultural boundaries. 

~Taru Elfving, June 2008
Curator of LIAF 08, writer and curator based in London 

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:
Lofoten, an archipelago with a unique and fragile ecosystem, has inspired LIAF 08 to address the specificities and urgencies of this context. Our key aim is to create an event that involves the local inhabitants, visitors to the islands and the participating artists in a dialogue around the questions of sustainable future and expanded community. 

The festival is now entering a new phase with an emphasis on site-specificity and commissioned work. We have commissioned artists to produce new pieces as well as invited them to show previous work. This allows for a closer insight into the practice of each artist as well as aims to weave more complex links between specific and global phenomena, here and elsewhere. 

NEW PRODUCTIONS Some production processes of the new works happen within the exhibition, such as Jun Yang’s film production, Joshua Sofaer’s inventory of local collections, and Tomas Saraceno’s semi-scientific experiment. Platforma 9.81 makes a proposal for future, while Lara Almarcegui directs our attention to current transformations within the town. Marjetica Potrc’s project entwines the local traditions with global concerns around urban development, Elin Wikström engages the local inhabitants in an alternative service economy, while Katarina Zdjelar collaborates with a local choir. Yang Zhenzhong engages with the questions of printed word and pollution, while another work in public space by Lise Harlev traces the subtle line between private and public. Sami Rintala & Dagur Eggertsson’s project moves out of the town and creates space for engagement with the surroundings, while Kimsooja focuses our attention on the specific instead of the spectacular in the landscape and its inhabitation. 

OTHER EXHIBITION PROGRAM The exhibition also encompasses screenings at the cinema in Svolvær (Artur Zmijewski), a video program of works placed in various sites around the Lofoten (Johanna Domke, Marianne Heske, Kristan Horton, Lisa Klapstock, Eva Meyer Keller, Vesa Ranta), and a performance program (incl. Baktruppen). Prior to and coinciding with the exhibition a series of workshops has been integral to the festival: a collaboration between artists Institutt for farge and local school pupils; a series of sound performances and workshops (Mad Professor, Marius Watz, Alexander Rishaug); and a workshop between Ramallah and Tromsø Art Academies led by artists Learning Site. This is all presented in our alternative guide, which is itself an art project - a collaboration of the artists collective Raketa with local high school pupils. 

LIAF 08 is not formed around a theme but an ethos that guides and encourages the interactions that address Lofoten - as a complex environment in constant process. 

You can find more about the Festival here: Lofoten International Art Festival website

Galleria Raffaella Cortese Via Stradella 7, 20129 Milan, Italy
February 21st, 2008 - April 26th, 2008

OPENING: Friday, February 21st, 2008, 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Galleria Raffaella Cortese is pleased to announce the exhibition Kimsooja: Video Album, opening on February 21st, 2008. This is Kimsooja’s second solo exhibition with Galleria Raffaella Cortese, where she will be presenting video and print works. 

An Album - Christopher House is a single channel video, from a series of Kimsooja’s on-going projects called 'Video Album', which she began with this piece in 2004. The artist decided to film people whom she had met in her life. This video is of Christopher House, a dancer and a choreographer, with whom Kimsooja once had a touching collaboration, and became good friends. Christopher House was filmed in a room alone with the camera, and was not directed to do anything but to sit for a set amount of time in front of the camera lens. This camera lens functioned as his mirror, and reflected a dimension of psychological journey, which can be seen through the impressions which race across his face. There are moments of thought, happiness, concern, agony, peace and enlightenment, which sparkle and change in his eyes and the impressions on his face. Although this is an artist's personal history and memory dedicated to a specific person, it shows her continuous contemplation on humanity, and her gaze towards the status and depth of 'being'. 

An Album - Havana is single channel video which is also one of Kimsooja’s 'Video Album' series. She filmed this piece in 2006, in an area along the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Havana, where many Cuban people come often to rest, sit, dream and walk along the Oceanside Bank. The video doesn't show the actual faces of people, as the footage is intentionally blurred, and progressively becomes more and more abstracted, to the point where the people are invisible and there is nothing except the passage of light, wind, time and space: ephemeral as the passage of our lives. An Album - Havana was also produced as a series of four giclée (inkjet) prints derived from film stills from her video. This exhibition is the worldwide premiere of the video work. 

A Wind Woman is a single channel video that was shot during a hillside drive in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2003. Here, she opened the camera shutter for an extended period of time, enhancing the light exposure and allowing the exterior world to flood into the pictorial field. In this body of work, Kimsooja focused particularly on the in-between space and time where the trees and the sky meet. This enabled the artist to transform realistic imagery into abstract paintings, and to continue her personal investigation into the blurring of categorical boundaries. A Wind Woman was also produced as a series of unique large scale iris prints derived from film stills from her video.

Passage du Temps, A selection of works from the François Pinault Foundation, Lille 3000
Tri Postal, Lille
October 16th, 2007 through January 1st, 2008

Lille 3000 website

Going Staying. Movement, Body, Place in Contemporary Art
Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn
November 28th, 2007 through February 17th, 2008

Kunstmuseum Bonn website

Void in Korean Art
Leeum Samsung Museum, Korea
November 1st, 2007 through January 27th, 2008

Leeum Samsung Museum website

Existencias
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y León, León
September 21st, 2007 through January 6th, 2008

Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y León website

Six Feet Under: Autopsy of Our Relations
Deutsches Hygiene Museum, Dresden
September 22nd, 2007 through March 30th, 2008

Deutsches Hygiene Museum website

Equatorial Rhythms
The Stenersen Museum, Oslo
September 20th through December 30th, 2007

The Stenersen Museum website

Pawnshop
E-flux, New York
October 1st, 2007 through January 1st, 2008

E-flux Pawnshop website

An Interpersonal Journey
Santralistanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
November 7th through November 30th, 2007

Santralistanbul website

Art Basel | Miami Beach
Convention Center, Miami

Art Basel Miami Beach website

December 5th through December 10th, 2007

Peter Blum Gallery, New York City

Peter Blum website

Kewenig Gallery, Cologne

Kewenig Gallery website

The 51st Venice Biennale
Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy

Curated by Jean-Huber Martin and Mattijs Visser
June 9th through July 10th, 2007
PREVIEW: June 8th, 2007

ArTempo website

Appellhofplatz 21 D-50667 Cologne Germany

April 21th through June 23th, 2007

Kewenig Galerie website

From the Earth to the Moon: Metaphors for Travel (Part I)
Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy
Curated by Marcella Beccaria
April 4th through August 26th, 2007

Castello di Rivoli website

Speed 3: Contrarreloj (Against the clock)
IVAM Institute Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, Spain
Curated by Dan Cameron
February 22nd through June 17th, 2007

IVAM website

Timeout. Art and Sustainability
The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein
Curated by Dr. Friedemann Malsch, Director
May 25th through September 2nd, 2007

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein website

À l’horizon de Shangri-la
FRAC Lorraine, Lorraine, France
Curated by Hélène Guenin
July 7th through the end of August 2007

FRAC Lorraine website

Listening Awry
McMaster Museum of Art, Ontario, Canada
Curated by Jim Drobnick
May 31st through September 1st, 2007

McMaster Museum of Art website

Scenes and Sequences - Peter Blum Editions
Kunsthaus Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland
May 4th through July 22nd, 2007

Kunsthaus Aarau website

Creative Time’s 33rd Anniversary
Times Square, New York City
May through June 2007
-Video segments from Kimsooja’s A Needle Woman, A Beggar Woman, and A Laundry Womanwill be played as part of a series of videos every 59th minute on the Panasonic screen in Times Square throughout May and June 2007. The videos will rotate each hour.

Creative Time website

Video Atlas Americas
Automatica, Rio de Janerio, Brazil
Curated by Paulo Herkenhof
June 25th through August 5th, 2007

Automatica website

The Missing Peace - Artists Consider the Dalai Lama
School of Visual Arts partner to the Rubin Museum of Art, New York City
July 12th through August 22th, 2007

The Missing Peace website

Art 38 Basel

Art Basel website
June 13th through June 17th, 2007

Peter Blum Gallery Booth

Peter Blum website

Kewenig Galerie Booth

Kewenig Galerie website

Appellhofplatz 21 D-50667 Cologne Germany

April 21th through June 23th, 2007

OPENING: April 20th, 7:00 - 9:00pm

After presenting the impressive installation of the Bottari Truck in her exhibition Bottari Cologne 2005, Kimsooja will now show her latest work at Kewenig Galerie. The 3 channel video projection Mumbai: A Laundry Field was created in the Indian city of Mumbai, former Bombay, in recent months, as a continuity of her series of A Laundry Woman. 

In one of the three-channel projections, the camera takes the viewer through the alleyways of various slums of Mumbai. The living conditions that prevail in the different slums have their own structure, as well as their own specific religious communities. Though in some quarters Hindus, Muslims and Christians live in the same community, the parallelism of the different cultures remain. You find slums in which human dignity seems to be irrelevant and in which people, obviously ignored and abandoned by the rest of society, dwell - some living in cots - amidst the stench of trash and waste of bad plumbing systems. But even these areas appeal to the foreign visitor aesthetically, because of their colourful laundry hanging on walls and in narrow alleys. They are perceived as places that are - though inhuman conditions predominate - affected by zest for life. 

The middle projection shows the washers of the quarter of Dhobighat at work. Water sprays vibrantly while the brightly coloured laundry is scrubbed, splashed, and dried. Even the washing place itself, which was created during colonial rule and demonstrates the hardship of the workers in Dhobighat seems to be filled with festive colours. The chore of the washer, the cleaning of other people's clothes, is relegated to the lowest class of people in the Indian caste system. It seems as if the washers - by tossing the laundry - are at pains to purify their own Karma. The sound of their heavy breathing appears to emphasize this impression. 

The scene on the right screen shows a commuter train running through Mumbai, crammed-full with people. The travellers also sit on the train roofs and articulated axles in-between the wagons. Allegorically, the scene conveys the everyday struggle for life of these people. While the clothes of the rail travellers flutter in the wind and correspond visually with the drying laundry of the adjacent projections in a magnificent way, the viewer still poses the burdensome question concerning aesthetic value and fate of the individual in this society. 

The images of the video work Mumbai: A Laundry Field have a direct and powerful impact. It's energy enchants and consternates at the same time. A conflict emerges from the consciousness that the viewer comes to question on the reality and it's hardships of tragedy and poverty, even violence, compared to the rich and colorful visual information and experience - obviously detached from reality - that embodies it's aesthetic value and quality. 

For the full press release click here: Kewenig Galerie - Kimsooja Press Release 

Kewenig Galerie website

Alameda 9, 28014 Madrid Spain

April 19th through May 27th, 2007

OPENING: April 19th, 8:00 - 10:00pm

The exhibition consists of the video piece A Wind Woman, and six unique prints generated from a series of still images from the same video. 

Kimsooja presents a video that she shot during a hillside drive in Honolulu, Hawaii. The artist opened the camera shutter for an extended period of time, enhancing the light exposure and allowing the exterior world to flood into the pictorial field. In this group of works, Kimsooja was particularly interested in the interstitial space where the trees and sky meet. This enabled her to transform realistic imagery into abstract paintings and to continue her personal investigation into the blurring of category boundaries. 

Kimsooja places the emphasis on the in-between space where the trees and sky meet, transforming the landscape into abstract paintings of immense vitality and beauty. The artist plays with different frequencies and a rich colour palette. The main theme is the existential reality of things, while the concepts that fuel her work are bound up with the nature of life and art. 

La Fabrica website

From the Earth to the Moon: Metaphors for Travel (Part I)
Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy
Curated by Marcella Beccaria
April 4th through August 26th, 2007

Castello di Rivoli website

Critical Mass
Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Curated by Philippe Pirotte
March 23rd through May 20th, 2007

Kunsthalle Bern website

Speed 3: Contrarreloj (Against the clock)
IVAM Institute Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, Spain
Curated by Dan Cameron
February 22nd through June 17th, 2007

IVAM website

Listening Awry
McMaster Museum of Art, Ontario, Canada
Curated by Jim Drobnick
May 31st through September 1st, 2007

McMaster Museum of Art website

Peter Blum Editions
Kunsthaus Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland
May 4th through July 22nd, 2007

Kunsthaus Aarau website

Creative Time’s 33rd Anniversary
Times Square, New York City
May through June 2007
-Video segments from Kimsooja’s A Needle Woman, A Beggar Woman, and A Laundry Womanwill be played as part of a series of videos every 59th minute on the Panasonic screen in Times Square throughout May and June 2007. The videos will rotate each hour.

Creative Time website

DC Düsseldorf Contemporary 2007
The Project Booth
April 19th through April 22nd, 2007

DC Düsseldorf website

Art Cologne
Kewenig Gallery Booth
April 18th through April 22nd, 2007

Art Cologne website

China International Gallery Exposition
Memories on E-motion
May 2nd through May 6th, 2007
Curated by Trevor Smith

CIGE website

526 West 29th Street, New York City
November 9th through January 13th, 2007

OPENING: November 9th, 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Peter Blum is pleased to announce the exhibition Kimsooja: A Wind Woman, 2003-2006, opening on November 9th at Peter Blum Chelsea, 526 West 29th Street, New York. This is Kimsooja’s second solo exhibition with Peter Blum. 

Kimsooja: A Wind Woman comprises a series of unique iris prints derived from large-scale film stills from her video A Wind Woman, 2003. The video was shot during a hillside drive in Honolulu, Hawaii. Here, she opened the camera shutter for an extended period of time, enhancing the light exposure and allowing the exterior world to flood into the pictorial field. In this body of work Kimsooja was interested particularly in the in-between space where the trees and the sky meet. This enabled her to transform realistic imagery into abstract paintings, and to continue her personal investigation into the blurring of categorical boundaries. 

Kimsooja’s attention to interstitial spaces can be traced to the start of her artistic career. In the early 1980’s, her questioning of the canvas’ surface initiated her “sewing” practice in which she aimed to connect two pieces of fabric as a way to generate relationships between disparate parts. She further developed this approach in other projects, such as Cities on the Move, 1997 - a literal patchwork of her memories. In A Needle Woman, 1999 - 2001 and 2005, Kimsooja continues this line of inquiry by examining various borders/boundaries - actual and theoretical - of cultures, races, and religions. 

Peter Blum website

37 West 57th Street, 3rd Floor, New York City
November 9th through December 22nd, 2006

OPENING: November 9th, 5:00pm - 7:00pm 

The focus of the videos in Kimsooja’s A Wind Woman at The Project is on nature, specifically the landscape. Though it is often central to the artist’s oeuvre, the performative aspect is muted in this exhibition - Kimsooja is ambiguously both present and absent in the works. The emphasis instead rests on the manner that the artist seizes the evanescent and the uncertain. 

In A Wind Woman (2003), filmed in Hawaii, the artist attempts to capture the space between things, the undefined line between treetops and the sky. What would ordinarily be perceived as a rapid and blurry event becomes a series of moments, some that are clearly views of landscapes, some that are surprisingly painterly and abstract. A Wind Woman presents a series of historical painting practices from Impressionism to Minimalism in one video take. 

A Wind Woman also includes several pieces from Kimsooja’s Bottari series, which concern the concept of “wrapping”. “Bottari” is the Korean word for a cloth bundle, traditionally used to transport household goods, an idea that the artist has famously employed for installations in which she uses brightly colored Korean bedcovers to wrap up the used clothing of anonymous people as a materialistic way of capturing the immateriality of those who once owned and wore the clothes. In the Bottari video works, Kimsooja uses video as an immaterial means of wrapping the reality of the world. 

Bottari - Alfa Beach (2001), filmed in a Nigerian port that in the 17th Century served as one of the major departing areas for slave trafficking ships, is a deceptively simplistic image. A static scene of the beach and the sky is turned upside down, serving to emphasize a very severe horizon line. The viewer becomes disoriented in regards to space - it’s hard to understand the direction that the waves move in, as they appear to recede. 

Bottari - Throwing the Globe (2000), shot in Real de Catorce, Mexico, is a dizzying video where the view shifts as if the world were spinning off its axis - the ground spins, the horizon turns upside down, and there is no moment in which one is able to find stability. In contrast,Bottari - Chasing the Fog (2000), also shot in Real de Catorce, hovers between a moving image and still image of the landscape, a rocky desert with patches of green, as it slowly becomes engulfed in a fog that blurs the line between the land and its atmosphere. 

Deep Breathing (1998), filmed in Ontario, Canada, is a meditative piece in which a landscape shrouded in fog almost appears to be a monochromatic painting. The element that grounds the view as a landscape is the occasional slow flight of seagulls in the sky, weaving through the clouds and fog. 

The Project website

Magasin 3, Stockholm
September 30th through December 17th, 2006

Curated by David Newman & Tessa Praun

Magasin 3 website 

*This exhibition features a 64 page catalogue, in colour, richly illustrated, and a fabric hard cover. With an essay by Doris Von Drathen, and an interview by Tessa Praun.

+++Kimsooja: Solo Exhibition
Magasin 3, Stockholm
September 30th through December 17th, 2006

Curated by David Newman & Tessa Praun

Magasin 3 website

This exhibition features a 64 page catalogue, in colour, richly illustrated, and a fabric hard cover. With an essay by Doris Von Drathen, and an interview by Tessa Praun.

+++To Breathe: Invisible Mirror/Invisible Needle
Theatre du Chatelet, Paris, Nuit Blanche
October 7th, 2006 7:00pm through October 8th, 2006 7:00am

Curated by Jerome Sans & Nicolas Bourriaud

Nuit Blanche website

+++The 2nd Architectural Biennial Beijing
The Great Hall of The National Museum of China
September 26th through October 6th, 2006

Directed by Luo Li
Curated by Ronald Szypura, Scott Lloyd, and Adjunct Curator Luca Zordan

The 2nd Architectural Biennial Beijing website

+++Art, Life & Confusion
October Art Salon Belgrade 2006
September 29th through November 5th, 2006, Belgrade

Curated by Rene Block & Barbara Heinrich

October Art Salon Belgrade 2006 website

+++The Missing Peace
Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago
October 28, 2006 through January 15th, 2007

The Missing Peace website

+++Allegories of Displacement
Westport Art Center, Westport, Connecticut
September 15th through October 25th, 2006

Curated by Michele C. Cone

The Westport Art Center website

KIMSOOJA To Breathe - A Mirror Woman
Exhibition catalogue
Published by Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
English/Spanish, 96 pages, 49 illustrations, soft cover

KIMSOOJA To Breathe / Respirare
Exhibition catalogue
Published by CHARTA
English/Italian, 152 pages, 54 illustrations, soft cover

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