Kimsooja

Lives in Seoul and Paris

She is a conceptual artist whose practice explores life and art, a relationship that transcends formal distinctions through painting, weaving and installation works, performance, video, light and sound. Kimsooja experiments with alternative modes of expression around the two-dimensional structure of painting, through weavings that reveal the dual order of the vertical and the horizontal as the foundation of the world. This inquiry expands the object of his artistic research from the material to the immaterial. Kimsooja's determined pursuit of the above and his adoption of “non-making” as an aesthetic principle, articulate his long trajectory with diverse media and methodologies, as well as drive his persistent questioning of art and humanity in the context of humanism and conceptual, contemplative aesthetics. His work has been exhibited in museums and site-specific venues, such as the Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection (2024), Traversées/Kimsooja in Poitiers (2019), Centre Pompidou, Commerce-Pinault Metz (2015), Kunsthalle Bern (2001) and MoMA PS1 (2001).

 

Foto

Kimsooja. Respirar — Las Banderas, 2018. Vista de instalación. Sede: Museo Nacional de Arte de Guatemala. Foto: Byron Mármol. Cortesía: Fundación Paiz / Bienal de Arte Paiz

Kimsooja. To Breathe — The Flags, 2018. Installation view. Venue: Museo Nacional de Arte de Guatemala. Photo: Byron Mármol. Courtesy: Fundación Paiz / Bienal de Arte Paiz

Obra participante en la bienal

(ES)
Respirar — Las Banderas

2018
15 banderas de nylon
243 x 152 cm (cada una)
Cortesía de la artista

Con una estética etérea y monumental, la instalación despliega una serie de 15 banderas traslúcidas que ondean como emblemas de la búsqueda de la coexistencia más allá de las fronteras nacionales. Inspirada en Respirar – Olímpicos, obra originalmente comisionada para los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres 2012, esta pieza invita al público a caminar entre las banderas en movimiento, reflexionando sobre la identidad. Al suspender símbolos nacionales en una dimensión abstracta y colectiva, la obra desestabiliza los límites territoriales, imaginando un espacio donde lo común se celebra en la diferencia.

(ENG)
To Breathe — The Flags

2018
15 nylon flags
243  x 152 cm (each)  
Courtesy of the artist

With an ethereal and monumental aesthetic, the installation displays a series of 15 translucent flags that wave like emblems of the search for coexistence beyond national borders. Inspired by To Breathe –Olympics, a work originally commissioned for the 2012 London Olympics, this piece invites the public to walk among the moving flags, reflecting on identity. By suspending national symbols in an abstract and collective dimension, the work destabilizes territorial boundaries, imagining a space where commonality is celebrated in difference.