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Kimsooja presents her solo exhibition 마음의 기하학 / Archive of Mind at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul

Kimsooja presents her solo exhibition 마음의 기하학 / Archive of Mind at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul
Exhibition Title: MMCA Hyundai Motor series 2016: : KIMSOOJA – 마음의 기하학 / Archive of Mind
Exhibition Date: July 27, 2016 – February 5, 2017
Exhibition Venue: Seoul Gallery 5, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul

Kimsooja presents KIMSOOJA – 마음의 기하학 / Archive of Mind at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul. This is a solo exhibition of new interactive performances and installation as part of the MMCA Hyundai Motor Series, 2016. The exhibition will present for the first a major performative installation titled 마음의 기하학 / Archive of Mind. In addition the exhibition will include a new installation Deductive Object and the new and fifth chapter of her ongoing film series Thread Routes, as well as a grouping of recent works that mark an evolution in the artist’s practice.

마음의 기하학 / Archive of Mind offers the artist’s reflections on the canonical problem of the act of making. This participatory workshop invites the audience to form a lump of clay into spheres at a 19-meter-long elliptical wooden table, which doubles as a canvas. Kimsooja conceived of making clay spheres in 2016 as a conceptual and meditative practice. The piece was inspired by the artist’s earlier concept of Bottari as a method of wrapping. The repetitive act of rolling clay introduces a polarity between the symmetrical forces of the participants’ palms—transposing their state of mind into matter and matter into void. A new sound performance piece titled Unfolding Sphere presents an acoustic counterpart to the rhythmic constellation of the clay spheres.

Deductive Object, 2016, Painted welded steel, aluminum mirror panels, Sculpture 2.45 x 1.5 (dia.) m, Mirror: 10 x 10 m Courtesy of the artist, Image provided by Kukje Gallery

Deductive Object, 2016,
Painted welded steel, aluminum mirror panels, Sculpture
2.45 x 1.5 (dia.) m, Mirror: 10 x 10 m
Courtesy of the artist, Image provided by Kukje Gallery

Presented in the museum’s courtyard is Deductive Object, a large-scale ovoid sculpture suspended on a mirrored plinth. Light diffracting films installed along the courtyard windows cause the sunlight to split into radiant color spectrum, while the sculpture’s surface or “obangsaek” (Korean traditional colors) reflects the light back in colorful geometric shapes This work is inspired by the Indian tradition of a brahmanda stone—sacred stones that are also known as a “cosmic egg”—that signify the birth of all matter in the universe, totality.

Thread Routes – Chapter V, 2016 A still image from 16mm film transferred to HD format, 21:48, Sound Courtesy of the artist, Image provided by Kukje Gallery

Thread Routes – Chapter V, 2016
A still image from 16mm film transferred to HD format, 21:48, Sound
Courtesy of the artist, Image provided by Kukje Gallery

The artist will also premiere Thread Routes V, the new chapter in her ongoing film series, Comprised of six chapters, Thread Routes juxtaposes performative elements of textile culture with parallel structures in nature, architecture, agriculture, and gender relationships. It is conceived as a non-narrative visual poem and a visual anthropology. The new chapter, the fifth in the series, takes place in the native cultures of America’s Navajo and Hopi lands against the backdrop of geological wonders, such as Shiprock and Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, and the architectural ruins of the Chaco culture in New Mexico. These bold monumental forms contrast with the primordial act of weaving and the pure forms of Native American crafts, framing the artist’s intensive anthropological survey of the birth of gestures that weave, wrap, and unwrap the fabric of the world.

A Study On Body, 1981, series of five silkscreen prints on paper, 34 x 34cm Courtesy of the artist, Image provided by Kukje Gallery

A Study On Body, 1981, series of five silkscreen prints on paper, 34 x 34cm
Courtesy of the artist, Image provided by Kukje Gallery

This exhibition also showcases a number of works related to the concept of corporeal geometry that Kimsooja has developed over the span of her career. For the last 30 years, Kimsooja has worked on an ever-evolving tableau, a continuation of the artist’s early work with painting and the re-contextualizing of daily objects, actions, and urgent social issues such as migration, exile, and violence. The works presented at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) furthers her commitment to creating an encounter with the public and continues the artist’s early meditation on non-doing and non-making as a form of art practice. Kimsooja’s enduring examination of dualism in life and art transforms elements of performance into a pursuit of totality.

  • 1_Kimsooja_Archive of Mind_2016

    1_Kimsooja_Archive of Mind_2016

  • Deductive Object, 2016,
Painted welded steel, aluminum mirror panels, Sculpture
2.45 x 1.5 (dia.) m, Mirror: 10 x 10 m
Courtesy of the artist, Image provided by Kukje Gallery

    2_Kimsooja_Deductive Object_2016

  • Thread Routes – Chapter V, 2016
A still image from 16mm film transferred to HD format, 21:48, Sound
Courtesy of the artist, Image provided by Kukje Gallery

    3_Kimsooja_Thread Routes - Chapter V_2016

  • A Study On Body, 1981, series of five silkscreen prints on paper, 34 x 34cm
Courtesy of the artist, Image provided by Kukje Gallery

    4_Kimsooja_A Study on Body_1981