A Needle Woman (1999-2001) consists of eight synchronized videos projected at large scale, each depicting the bustling center of major world cities exploring globalization's impact throughout the world.
Miami Art Museum Presents Video Installations by Kimsooja.
Exploring the Impact of Globalization at Street Level
Miami — June 14, 2012 — Miami Art Museum, a modern and contemporary art museum
located in downtown Miami, FL, will present an exhibition of videos by Korean artist Kimsooja
from Friday, June 29 to Sunday, August 26, 2012. The exhibition’s title, Kimsooja: A Needle
Woman, is borrowed from the centerpiece of the exhibition, a multi-channel video installation
exploring globalization’s impact on cities throughout the world. Kimsooja: A Needle Woman will
open with an artist talk and preview on Thursday, June 28, from 6-9pm. In conjunction with the
exhibition, MAM will host related programs including: movement workshops for children (July
14) and adults (July 28) designed to bring about greater awareness of the relationship between
oneself and one’s surroundings; and a film screening of LAGOS / KOOLHAAS (August 18), a
documentary exploring the complex city of Lagos, one of the cities featured in Kimsooja’s A
Needle Woman, through the observations of urban theorist Rem Koolhaas. For more
information, please visit miamiartmuseum.org.
Kimsooja’s A Needle Woman (1999-2001) consists of eight synchronized videos projected at
large scale, each depicting the bustling center of a major world city: Cairo, Delhi, Lagos,
London, Mexico City, New York, Shanghai, and Tokyo. In each projection, a lone figure wearing
neutral gray clothes stands utterly motionless with her back to the camera, immersed amid a
torrent of pedestrians. With this simple gesture, the artist exemplifies the perennial struggle to
preserve a place for the individual within society, while embodying the experience of being
engulfed within a foreign culture. In the process, she provides a vivid sense of the effects of
globalization at street level.
“The figure that appears in these images confronts head-on the fearsome power of the
contemporary city; at the same time, through her stillness, she personifies the possibility of
making peace with it,” said René Morales, MAM associate curator. “Issues of urbanism and the
rhetoric that surrounds the ‘global city’ construct have particular resonance here in Miami.
Kimsooja deals with these topics with nuance and poetry.”
This presentation also includes two closely related works by Kimsooja: In A Needle Woman –
Kitakyushu, the artist lies prostrate atop a rocky peak as clouds swirl hypnotically above her;
while in A Laundry Woman – Yamuna River, she stands at the banks of a sacred waterway in
India, suspended amid an ethereal void created by the sky’s reflection on the river surface.
Offering a direct counterpoint to the larger series, the pair creates a space of timeless serenity
within the installation, a momentary respite from the frenetic energy of the 21 st-century cities that
surround them.
Exhibition Organization and Support
Miami Art Museum and curated by MAM Associate
Curator René Morales. The exhibition is supported by MAM’s Annual Exhibition Fund.
About Kimsooja
Kimsooja was born in Taegu, South Korea in 1957, and lives in New York, Paris, and Seoul. Her
work has been exhibited internationally since the 1990s. Solo exhibitions have been presented
at prestigious venues including P.S.1/MOMA, New York, USA; Crystal Palace of Reina Sophia,
Madrid, Spain; Baltic Center, Gateshead, UK; BOZAR Brussels, Belgium; Yong Gwang Nuclear
Power Plant Project by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon-si, South Korea;
Atelier Hermes, Seoul, South Korea; Fondazione Bevilacqua, La Masa, Italy; La Fenice, Venice,
Italy; Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria; Rodin Gallery of the Samsung
Museum, Seoul, South Korea; Institute of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; Center for
Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, Japan; Contemporary Art Museum, Lyon, France; Museum
Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, Germany; and Padiglione d’Arte Conetmporanea, Milan, Italy. She
has participated in numerous international biennial exhibitions including those of Venice, São
Paulo, Istanbul, Lyon, Kwangju, Busan, Sydney, Valencia, Thessaloniki, and Moscow.
About Miami Art Museum
Miami Art Museum, a modern and contemporary art museum located in downtown Miami, FL, is
dedicated to collecting and exhibiting international art of the 20th and 21st centuries with an
emphasis on the cultures of the Atlantic Rim—the Americas, Europe and Africa—from which the
vast majority of Miami residents hail. Miami Art Museum’s educational programming currently
reaches more than 30,000 people every year, with the largest art education program outside the
Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Miami Art Museum will reopen as Pérez Art Museum Miami
in fall of 2013 in downtown Miami’s Museum Park. The new, expanded museum, designed by
Herzog & de Meuron, will provide room to showcase growing collections, expanded exhibition
space to bring more world-class exhibitions to Miami-Dade County and an educational complex.
Saturday, July 14, 2012, 1-4pm, tour 2pm
Free and open to the public
Inspired by the videos of Kimsooja, create a still, miniature figure standing in front of an action-
packed background. At 3pm, use your body to explore stillness and movement in this workshop
facilitated by Priscilla Marrero and Carlota Pradera, professional dancers and choreographers,
together with Gustavo Matamoros, sound artist. Details at 305.375.4073 or
education@miamiartmuseum.org.
Tour and Workshop: Stillness & Movement
Saturday, July 28, 2012, 2-3:30pm
MAM members free, non-members $8 (general museum admission)
Following a curator-led tour of Kimsooja: A Needle Woman, explore exhibition themes through
this interactive workshop. Participants will explore the multiple possibilities of bodily movement
and stillness, both at the level of the individual and as a human collective. Priscilla Marrero and
Carlota Pradera, professional dancers and choreographers, will facilitate together with Gustavo
Matamoros, sound artist. Space is limited. RSVP is required to 305.375.4073 or
education@miamiartmuseum.org.
Film Screening: LAGOS / KOOLHAAS, directed by Bregtje van der Haak
Saturday, August 18, 1-4pm (screenings begin 1pm, 2pm and 3pm)
MAM members free, non-members $8 (general museum admission)
This hypnotic documentary explores the complex city of Lagos through the observations of
award-winning architect and urban theorist Rem Koolhaas and the residents themselves. The
film will be screened three times, to different audio: 1-2pm commentary by Rem Koolhaas; 2-
3pm commentaries by residents of Lagos; 3-4pm sounds of the city. Details at 305.375.4073 or
education@miamiartmuseum.org.
Artist Talk and Exhibition Preview on June 28 from 6 to 9pm. Talk begins 6:30pm (Space is limited. First come, first seated.)
Opening on June 29
Miami Art Museum
101 West Flagler Street, Miami
MAM members free, non-members $10