Oku-Noto Triennale: To Breathe, Wanzaki Coast, Suzu, Japan
25 February - 13 June 2021


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 2nd Oku-Noto Triennale runs from September 4 to November 6th, 2021.

Installation at Wanas Konst Art Gallery, Wanas, Sweden
For Wanås Foundation, Sowing Into Painting, Multidimensional Art Project Including Site-specific Installations
Courtesy of Wanås Konst and Kimsooja Studio

Site Specific Installation at Wanas Konst Sculpture Park, Wanas, Sweden
For Wanås Foundation, Sowing Into Painting, Multidimensional Art Project Including Site-specific Installations
Courtesy of Wanås Konst and Kimsooja Studio

Site-specific Installation at Wanas Konst haybarn, Wanas, Sweden
For Wanås Foundation, Sowing Into Painting, Multidimensional Art Project Including Site-specific Installations
Courtesy of Wanås Konst and Kimsooja Studio

Installation view at To Breathe - The Light House, 2020-2021, Boghossian Foundation, Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium

Installation at the 1st Asia Society Triennial: We Do Not Dream Alone: Art and creativity under lockdown, Asia Society Museum, New York, USA
For more information, click HERE

Archives from 'Sowing into Painting' project, Wanås Konst, Sweden, 2020
Flax oil, flax seeds capsules, flax seeds, linen fiber, yarn balls, woven linen canvas fabric
Courtesy Kimsooja Studio, KEWENIG, Berlin et Wanås Konst, Wanås
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Exploring the conceptual relationship between culture and agriculture, painting and textiles, these objects exemplify harvests from the artist’s flax plantation project in Wanås, Sweden. The flax seed produces both linseed oil used to make oil paint and linen fiber, which is woven into canvases—the two basic materials for painting. The field becomes a life painting, planted into the earth, cultivated, and harvested, threading the idea of painting, agriculture, and textile together. The flax fibers harvested from Sowing into Painting are woven into canvases to produce Meta-Painting. In this new work, Kimsooja conceptualized painting in the form of cyclical painting, or painting before painting, after over forty years of departure from any brushwork on canvas.


문화와 농경, 회화와 직조 사이의 개념적 관계를 탐구하는 이 오브제는, 스웨덴 바노스(Wanås)에 위치한 작가의 아마(flax) 재배 프로젝트에서 나온 결과물이다. 아마의 씨앗은 유화를 만드는 데 사용되는 린시드 오일을 생산하는 동시에, 캔버스를 짜는 데 사용되는 린넨 섬유를 제공한다. 즉, 회화를 구성하는 가장 기본적인 두 재료가 하나의 식물에서 기원하는 것이다. 이 밭은 파종되고, 경작되고, 수확된다는 점에서 하나의 ‘생태적 회화’가 되며, 회화·농경·직조라는 세 개념을 하나의 과정으로 엮어낸다. <씨 뿌려 그리기> 작품을 통해 수확된 아마 섬유는 다시 직조되어 〈메타-페인팅〉이라는 새로운 캔버스로 전환된다. 이 작품에서 김수자는 붓질을 떠난 지 40여 년 만에, 회화를 ‘순환적 회화’ 혹은 ‘회화 이전의 회화’라는 형태로 개념화하며 회화의 근원적 의미를 재사유한다.

Site-specific Project at Wanas Konst, Sweden
Work in Progress with Two Planted Varieties of Flax Seeds (for Flax Seeds Oil and Linen) in Wanås Konst Open Fields
Courtesy of Wanås Konst and Kimsooja Studio
For Wanås Foundation, Sowing Into Painting, Multidimensional Art Project Including Site-specific Installations

Installation at Kimsooja: To Breathe, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Chapel, Wakefield, UK

Single Channel Video
28:18, 5.1 Sound, HD
Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof
Commissioned by the City of Poitiers
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Thread Routes is Kimsooja’s first 16mm film series, after having spent more than three decades contextualizing and conceptualizing textiles as a canvas that supports a structural investigation of human life, nature and the world.
While contemporary art has long considered textiles as craft, Kimsooja has consistently sought to connect the nature of textiles to the performative, the sculptural/architectural, the notion of tableau and questions of gender, aesthetics and culture.
Divided into six chapters, Thread Routes takes place in six different cultural zones around the world. Kimsooja considers her approach as a 'visual poem' and a 'visual anthropology' in juxtaposing and presenting structural similarities in performative elements of textile culture with the structures in nature, architecture, agriculture and gender relationships in different cultures. These non-descriptive and non-narrative documentary films were conceived after being inspired in Bruge, Belgium in 2002, by traditional lace making, and its performative elements and architectural structure.
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Most recently, in 2019, Kimsooja traveled to Morocco to film the sixth chapter of the series. Documenting crafts such as leather dyeing, tile making, embroidery, and weaving,
In juxtaposing crafts traditionally thought of as masculine and feminine, such as mosaic tile making and weaving, respectively, Kimsooja examines the ways in which different labor is gendered. Scenes of ancient architecture, such as the world’s oldest university, blend into views of pastures, mountains, and desert dunes throughout Morocco’s diverse landscape.


〈실의 궤적〉은 인간의 삶, 자연, 세계의 구조를 탐구하는 회화적 장(場)으로서 텍스타일을 30여 년에 걸쳐 맥락화하고 개념화해 온 이후, 김수자가 처음으로 제작한 16mm 필름 연작이다. 동시대 미술이 오랫동안 텍스타일을 공예로 간주해 왔음에도 김수자는 텍스타일의 본질을 퍼포머티브한 차원, 조각·건축적 차원, 타블로(tableau)의 개념, 그리고 젠더·미학·문화에 대한 질문들과 지속적으로 연결해 왔다.
여섯 개의 장으로 구성된 〈실의 궤적〉은 전 세계 여섯 개의 서로 다른 문화권을 배경으로 제작되었다. 김수자는 이 접근을 ‘시각적 시(visual poem)’이자 ‘시각적 인류학(visual anthropology)’으로 간주하며, 텍스타일 문화의 퍼포먼스적 요소들이 자연, 건축, 농경, 젠더 관계의 구조들과 지니는 형식적 유사성을 병치해 제시한다. 이 비서사적이고 비서술적인 다큐멘터리 필름들은 2002년 벨기에 브뤼헤에서 전통 레이스 제작과 그 퍼포먼스적·건축적 구조를 목격한 경험에서 영감을 받아 구상되었다.
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Chapter VI (2019) — 모로코
가장 최근인 2019년, 김수자는 시리즈의 여섯 번째 챕터를 촬영하기 위해 모로코로 향했다. 여기서는 가죽 염색, 타일 제작, 자수, 직조 등 다양한 공예가 기록된다. 작가는 모자이크 타일 제작과 직조처럼 전통적으로 남성적 혹은 여성적 노동으로 간주되어 온 공예들을 병치함으로써 서로 다른 노동이 어떻게 젠더화되는지를 탐구한다. 모로코의 다양한 지형을 이루는 목초지, 산악 지대, 사막의 모래언덕 풍경은 마치 세계에서 가장 오래된 대학과 같은 고대 건축 장면들과 자연스럽게 겹쳐지며 이어진다.

Installation view at Musée Sainte-Croix, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation view at Notre-Dame La Grande, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation view at Tour Maubergeon, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Sewing Into Soil: Invisible Needle, Invisible Thread, 2019
Stoneware
Courtesy Kimsooja Studio et Manufacture de Sèvres – Cité de la Céramique
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Deductive Object – Bottari, 2019
Ensemble de 9 pièces en grès et terre cuite / A set of 9 pieces of stoneware, terracotta
Courtesy Kimsooja Studio et Manufacture de Sèvres – Cité de la Céramique


Sewing Into Soil: Invisible Needle, Invisible Thread was made in collaboration with the artisans at the Manufacture de Sèvres. The artist pierces the stoneware panel with a needle, creating a constellation of holes that records the artist’s vertical action onto a horizontal surface. It is closely associated with the act of sowing on soil, which marks a beginning of painting for Kimsooja. In dialogue with this panel in relief, Deductive Object – Bottari conceptualizes the form of moon jar, a type of traditional Korean ceramic dating from the eighteenth century. This vessel forms through the logic of wrapping, which parallels that of making a bottari (Korean cloth bundle), to contain an interior punctured by a needle hole at the top.
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〈흙으로 바느질하기: 보이지 않는 바늘, 보이지 않는 실〉은 세브르 도자기 제작소 (Manufacture de Sèvres) 장인들과 협업하여 제작되었다. 작가는 석판을 바늘로 뚫는 작업을 통해 수직적인 행위가 수평적 표면 위에 별자리처럼 기록되도록 한다. 흙 위에 씨앗을 뿌리는 행위와 유사한 이 작업은 김수자에게 있어 회화의 근원을 의미한다. 이 부조 패널과 대화하는 듯한 〈연역적 오브제 – 보따리〉는 18세기에 기원한 한국 전통 도자기인 달항아리의 형태를 개념화한 작업이다. 이 오브제는 보따리를 싸는 방식과 유사한, ‘감싸기’의 방식을 통해 구축되며, 상단에 바늘로 낸 작은 구멍을 지닌 채 내부 공간을 품도록 만들어져 있다.

Deductive Object – Bottari, 2019
Ensemble de 9 pièces en grès et terre cuite / A set of 9 pieces of stoneware, terracotta
Courtesy Kimsooja Studio et Manufacture de Sèvres – Cité de la Céramique
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Deductive Object, 2019
Stoneware
Courtesy Kimsooja Studio et Sèvres – Cité de la Céramique
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Moon jar is a traditional Korean ceramic dating from the eighteenth century, known for evoking the full moon through its round shape and brilliant color. Irregularities in the material texture and a slight asymmetry caused by the assembly of upper and lower bowls in the shape of hemispheres are the essence of its beauty, where the aesthetic imperfection makes the object even closer to nature. This series of five moon jar-shaped sculptures (out of nine as a set of installation in stoneware and terracotta) was made in collaboration with the artisans at the Manufacture de Sèvres. Kimsooja conceptualizes the moon jar as a bottari (bundle of fabric in Korean), a concept of wholeness and totality, which she developed over the past 40 years of her artistic practice.
Ceramics exemplify a transcultural practice that connects human rituals with nature by integrating earth, water, fire, and air. As part of the moon jar series, Kimsooja conceived the large stoneware and the smaller spheres and chunks as variations of bottari. The act of spinning a pottery wheel parallels a process of emptying the center, while an instance of grabbing or circling two palms around a mass of earth registers a center that is full. The stoneware’s asymmetrical form, which the artist describes as recalling the shape of a face, creates a dialogue with the hand-shaped clay beside it; all suggest a portrait of our body and our mind.


달항아리는 18세기에 제작되기 시작한 한국의 전통 도자기로, 둥근 형태와 눈부신 백색을 통해 보름달을 환기시키는 아름다움으로 잘 알려져 있다. 위·아래의 반구 형태의 그릇을 맞붙여 만드는 제작 방식에서 비롯되는 질감의 불규칙성과 미세한 비대칭성은 달항아리 미학의 핵심으로 여겨지며, 이러한 ‘불완전성’이 오히려 사물을 자연에 더욱 가깝게 만든다.
석재와 테라코타로 구성된 아홉 점 가운데, 다섯 점의 달항아리 형상 조각은 세브르 도자 제작소(Manufacture de Sèvres)의 장인들과 협업하여 제작되었다. 김수자는 이러한 달항아리를 지난 40여 년간 자신의 예술 실천 속에서 발전시켜 온, 온전함과 전체성을 나타내는 또 다른 ‘보따리’로 개념화한다.
도예는 흙, 물, 불, 공기를 통합함으로써 인간의 의례와 자연을 연결하는 대표적인 초문화적(transcultural) 실천이라고 할 수 있다. 이는 달항아리 연작의 일환으로, 김수자는 대형 석재 조각과 더 작은 구체 및 점토 덩어리를 보따리의 다양한 변주로 개념화하였다. 물레를 돌리는 행위는 중심을 비워내는 과정에 해당하는 반면, 흙덩어리를 두 손바닥으로 움켜쥐거나 원을 그리듯 감싸는 순간은 꽉 찬 중심의 형성을 의미한다. 작가가 얼굴의 형상을 연상한다고 언급한 바 있는 석재 조각의 비대칭적 형태는 그 옆에 놓인 손의 자취가 남은 점토 덩어리와 조형적 대화를 이루고 있으며, 이는 우리의 신체와 정신을 나타내는 초상을 은유한다.

Installation view at Palais des ducs d'Aquitaine, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
First exhibited in a different configuration at the the Kimsooja, Archive of Mind, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea(MMCA), Seoul, Korea

Installation view at Sainte - Radegonde Church, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation view at Chapelle Saint Louis, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation view at La Canopée, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation view at La Canopée, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation view at Maison de l'Architecture, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation at Kimsooja: Archive of Mind, Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), Salem, USA

Installation view at Chapelle Saint Louis, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation view at Le Confort Moderne, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation view at Place de la Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation view at Rue de la cathédrale, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France

Installation at Group Exhibition Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance The Rubin Museum of Art, New York, USA
First exhibited in a different configuration at the Palais Rameau, Lille, 2003, Courtesy Dijon Consortium

Installation at Solo Exhibition Gazing Into Sphere, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium

To Breathe – The Flags is a series of site specific print installations for the Perth International Arts Festival Visual Arts Tour 2017, Perth, Australia. The installation was developed in tandem with he artist’s first Australian solo exhibition Zone of Nowhere. The exhibition featured a new, awe-inspiring installation of 30 large translucent flags suspended above PICA’s central gallery space, drawing upon her previous artwork commission by the International Olympic Committee for the London 2012 Summer Olympics.


The exhibition extends beyond the walls of PICA, with the same colorful layered flags appearing on public facades throughout Northbridge and the Perth CBD. The flags, at such a monumental size, placed in the most central parts of Perth, produce an inescapable encounter despite their imaginary status.

Site-specific Installation at Culture City of East Asia 2017 Kyoto: Encounter - A Mirror Woman, Nijo Castle, Kyoto, Japan