Kimsooja
dal 4/10/2009 al 16/1/2010
Segnalato da
4/10/2009
Kimsooja
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
The exhibition consists of two projected works 'A Needle Woman' and 'A Laundry Woman-Yamuna River, India'. Kimsooja's work combines performance, video, and installation, addressing issues of the displaced self. Kimsooja brings together a conceptual, logical, and structural investigation of performance through immobility that inverts the notion of the artist as the predominant actor. Her work is more than an ethnographic document, the viewer is immersed in an experience that establishes connections, invites relationships and shared experience that expands time and seeks universal truths.
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art presents the first UK solo show by the highly
regarded Korean artist Kimsooja. The exhibition, located in BALTIC’s largest gallery
space on Level 4, will consist of two projected works A Needle Woman and
A Laundry Woman-Yamuna River, India. The exhibition opens on Monday 5 October
2009.
Kimsooja's work combines performance, video, and installation, addressing issues of
the displaced self. Kimsooja brings together a conceptual, logical, and structural
investigation of performance through immobility that inverts the notion of the artist as
the predominant actor.
A Needle Woman 1999-2001, was performed in 8 metropolitans around the world;
Tokyo, Shanghai, Delhi, New York, Mexico City, Cairo, Lagos and London, each
performance simultaneous projected through one of eight channels. Her silent
presence elicits responses from passers-by who together weave a social, cultural
fabric around the artist's needle-like figure. At first, her motionless presence centres
the viewer's gaze, yet as time passes, their eyes move elsewhere, scanning the faces
in the crowd in order to gauge their reactions and emotions as they try to understand
what the artist is doing in the street.
In total silence and motionlessness, with her face directed away from the camera,
Kimsooja's wilful suppression of desires communicates a questioning of human
condition on profound personal and spiritual levels. The stillness of her body acts as
a barometer of a society or culture and at the same time as a void that allows the
audiences to pass through her back and enter her position, so that they can see what
the artist is gazing at and contemplating on. Kimsooja examines her body as an axis of
space and time that posses compassionate questions about ourselves, social political
justices, multiculturalism and region.
Accompanying A Needle Woman, Kimsooja presents A Laundry Woman-Yamuna
River, India . Again, the artist is motionless apparently suspended in time, in contrast to
A Needle Woman, she contemplates the nature that surrounds her. The river slides by,
picking up flotsam, washing away the earth and as cremated ashes flow past the work
considers the relationship between the body and nature, stillness and movement and
the cycle of life and death.
During a period of hyper-consumption of information, Kimsooja asks pertinent
questions about the nature of human existence, exploring ideas of time,
consciousness and perception. Her work is more than an ethnographic document, the
viewer is immersed in an experience that establishes connections, invites relationships
and shared experience that expands time and seeks universal truths.
Kimsooja’s work has been exhibited internationally and featured in numerous solo and
group shows, such as Artempo (2007) and In-Finitum (2009) in Venice, Cities on the
Move (1997-2000), Traditions/Tensions (1996-1998), and Biennales in Kwangju
(1995), Sao Paolo (1998), the Whitney Biennial (2002), Busan (2002), Sydney
(1998), Istanbul (1997), Lyon (2000), Valencia (2003), Venice (1999, 2005), and
most recently Thessaloniki (2009) and Moscow (2009).
Solo exhibitions include Mumbai: A Laundrey Field, Lw Moulin, Continua Gallery
(2009); Lotus: Zone of Zero, BOZAR, Brussels (2008); To Breathe: A Mirror Woman,
Crystal Palace, Reina Sophia, Madrid, 2006; To Breathe / Respirare at La Fenice,
Venice (2006); Traveling solo show Conditions of Humanity, Contemporary Art
Museum of Lyon, Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, PAC Milan (2003-2004); A
Laundry Woman, Kunsthalle Wien (2002); A Needle Woman, P.S.1 Contemporary Art
Center/ MOMA (2001), A Needle Woman in Kunsthalle Bern (2001); Rodin Gallery,
Seoul (2000); and ICC, Tokyo (2000); CCA Kitakyushu (1999).
More information, projects, works, and texts can be found at http://www.kimsooja.com
GALLERY INFORMATION:
BALTIC is a major international centre for contemporary art situated on
the south bank of the River Tyne in Gateshead, England. BALTIC presents
a constantly changing, distinctive and ambitious programme of
exhibitions and events, and is a world leader in the presentation,
commissioning and communication of contemporary visual art. BALTIC has
welcomed over 3 million visitors, since opening to the public in July 2002.
For further information please contact:
Ann Cooper, Media Officer T: 0191 440 4915 E: annc@balticmill.com
Nikki Johnson, Communications Assistant T: 0191 440 4912 E: nikkij@balticmill.com
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
Gateshead Quays
South Shore Road, Gateshead
Opening hours: Monday - Sunday 10 - 18 (excluding Tuesday) Tuesday 10.30 - 18
admission free