• It is generally agreed that the modern art of the twentieth century came into being and gained the momentum of development in tandem with: the extended conception of matter, the emergence of a science of the unconscious, and the changes in the modes of communication, to name only a few. As an attempt to pose a question about the characteristic of the contemporary art of the twenty-first century, various art critics and curators of the contemporary art cited several key words such as‘place’, ‘spirituality’, ‘identity’ and ‘consumption’in the project, Art 21 of Susan Sollins. The project introduced Kimsooja’s art with details in the expression of a mobile lifestyle, the contemplation of humans and nature, and the artist’s identity seen via the others. Along with those issues, Kimsooja contained critical views on the contemporary society within her works, which could be thus be valued as leading to significant art issues in the twenty-first century

• The National Museum of Contemporary Art of Korea has been exploring the possibility of a public art project outside the museum since December 2009. In order to try it out, a preliminary test for the project was ensued. The museum decided to select Kimsooja’s video installations titled as ‘Earth-Water-Fire-Air’ series to feature for the Yonggwang Nuclear Power Plant Art Project. The museum's curators had been engaged in vigorous discussions and research on art projects that could deliver new ideas and fresh formats. The focal concern was how the museum could expand its sphere, and not enclose the exhibitions and other projects only within its walls. Curators looked into the precedence of such, as in the Anyang Public Art Project in Korea, the Naoshima Project in Japan and the Loire Project in France, sizing up strengths and drawbacks in each project. Meanwhile, in conjunction with the nation's enhanced status in the world economy, the idea of the possibility of combining Korea’s industrial strength with the realization of an art project was put forward. In other words, the museum eventually made a decision potential for challenging future debates and voices: it threw art into the realm of its apparent antithesis. At that time the export scheme of the nuclear plant to UAE surfaced in Korea, which was in lieu with the promotion of the public awareness of the unrevealed identity of nuclear power and its allied industries. The inves-tigative questions raised were both basic and controversial, illuminating on different facets of what was at stake: is nuclear power only destructive and fearful as infamously known in a nuclear explosion? Or could it be the alternative way to solve the lack of energy and environmental problems? Would it be plausible to combine such explosive societal and global issue with the arts? If possible, what kind of responses and reactions would be derived from such a marriage? And furthermore, what kind of artistic communication can be delivered? No one dared to experiment with the very conception, and yet in May 2010, we plunged into the practical procedures to realize the project in the exact place where the plant was located.

• There are four power plants in Korea. Out of the plants in Uljin, Worsung, Gori and Yonggwang,the Yonggwang plant is situated in beautiful Honam area, the south-western part of Korea. In the course of constructing the plant in the city, a public park was created for the sake of the dwellers, utilizing earth and sand which was unearthed due to the construction work. It is called Han-ma-eum Park, meaning “one mind” in Korean – and the in-habitants are currently enjoying the park. The artworks will be installed on the bank built within the plant site, similar to breakwater. The stretched bank functions to cool down the sea water which was heated up in the process of generating the nuclear power. It is as long as 1,136 meters, surrounded by the sea. Yet once one walks along the bank, one can feel the sweeping view as if its path running towards the sea with breath-taking gallops. From there,viewers can see We Island in Buan away off where the residents had staged strong protests against building the waste disposal facility. The artist chose this place because it was deemed as the intersection between civilization, posed as nuclear technology,and art, represented by humans and nature.

• Kimsooja’s ‘Earth-Water-Fire-Air’ series is the outcome of her philosophical search for the relation between human beings and nature. She rounded the whole project off with the completion of 'Water of Air' which is video images of glaciers in Greenland,filmed up from a helicopter in July 2010. The whole works comprise eight separate series, the core concept of which is that the four primary elements of nature – earth, water, fire, air – by means of the organic synthesis go through changes, perishment, and creation. The titles of works invite viewers to ponder on the implications of the relations between the two elements keyed in the title; Fire of Earth,Water of Earth, Earth of Water, Air of Fire, Air of Earth, Air of Water, Fire of Air, Water of Air. They reveal that four elements are interconnected in the bond of a circulatory system. To sum it up, the at-tributes of earth are derived from water and air, and fire gives birth to air, and air is the incarnated form of water. Titles are rich in suggesting the four elements’ wondrous liaison with one another. One is reminded of the Oriental philosophy concerning five classical elements of the universe created by Yin and Yang energy- Gold, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth, which were expounded in the theory of Oh Hang Sang Seng(五行相生). Kimsooja’s previous series such as A Needle Woman, A Beggar Woman, and A Mirror Woman deal with both the contradictory and relational facets of connections between individuals, humans and society, or humans and nature.The two factors upon the encounter generate conflict and thereby inflict scars on each other, and yet they might work to heal in certain circumstances, Kimsooja observed. The artist herself standing still with her back to the viewers serves as an axis for those relations and their interactions to flow and swirl around, so that the artist in stillness comes to be the integral recipient of perception.

Kimsooja often explained in many of her interviews that her art stemmed from the unique personal encounter with needles and sewing. In the similar vein,the long-stretched breakwater at the site of the power plant with the light house at the end where it faces the sea, is once again transformed into the artist's Being as a ‘Needle Woman’. The site poses questions on the relations of nature and energy,materials and humans. The experience of sudden aggregations and intensity of the universal energy imposed upon and penetrated into Kimsooja while she was sewing with her mother long time ago, is to revive in this project, only on a much grander scale.

The artist sees the nuclear energy as part of the order of synthesis – the process being fission and fusion – and one could say that this is an extension of ‘Earth-Water-Fire-Air’ Series. Nuclear energy, did in the end, come from nature, and was subsequently transformed into an energy both capable of total annihilation and construction. The subject of this art project becomes the arena where all the various kinds of discussions and debates of contemporary art come together. For this project, Kimsooja's six-channel video installation will be shown on fabricated outdoor screens that equally segmented and separated out along the boardwalk. Against the backdrop of the power station, we find ourselves in the midst of the convergence of technology and art by the artist’s alchemic touch, and her acute perceptive abilities. People might ask questions about humans and nuclear power, about harmony and collision – about art as a public realm.

“A needle is an intriguing being which has duality residing in its existence. While the tip of the needle hurts and separates when aggressively attacks, the needle eye heals and combines two divided parts together. We could even say that the needle has hermaphroditic qualities. I was so bewitched by the needle that I continued to have persisting questions in it. Once the performance of sewing is done, all that remains is the thread, and the needle vanishes from the site.
– Excerpt from Lee Kyuhyun, “Hello, Mr./Ms. Artist!”, Nexus Publication 2010, An Interview With Kimsooja -

“A needle is an intriguing being which has duality residing in its existence. While the tip of the needle hurts and separates when aggressively attacks, the needle eye heals and combines two divided parts together. We could even say that the needle has hermaphroditic qualities. I was so bewitched by the needle that I continued to have persisting questions in it. Once the performance of sewing is done, all that remains is the thread, and the needle vanishes from the site.”

• – Excerpt from Lee Kyuhyun, “Hello, Mr./Ms. Artist!”, Nexus Publication 2010, An Interview With Kimsooja -