Kimsooja
Throughout the past forty years, Kimsooja’s conceptual practice has been dedicated to exploring the human condition through the awareness of self and others in search for a comprehensive totality. Her diverse practice combines performance, film, sculpture, photography, and site-specific installation using textiles, light, and sound to create a transcendent experience for the viewer. Rooted in the practice of sewing, Kimsooja's seminal work A Needle Woman, positions her body as a symbolic needle, a motionless figure in the center of urban environments passing through the fabric of a place and its people. Metaphorically referring to the way the moving body weaves connections with new contexts and new situations, this concept reoccurs throughout Kimsooja’s practice.
Often engaging with cultural signifiers, the bottari — a traditional Korean bed cover used to wrap and protect personal belongings — has become a central form in her practice. Representative of essential belongings and a nomadic lifestyle, the bottari is a memory of our own body, relating to the past, present, and future. Kimsooja extends the bottari concept to architectural spaces, transforming a room or building into a transcendental experience by wrapping and weaving light, sound, and reflection to inspire thoughtful introspection.
Born in 1957 Daegu, Korea, Kimsooja lives and works in Seoul, Paris, and New York. The artist received her MFA in painting from the Hong-IK University, Seoul, Korea in 1984.
Since the 1980s, the artist has participated in numerous international exhibitions, projects, and site-specific installations. In 2013, Kimsooja represented Korea in the 55th Venice Biennale with To Breathe: Bottari. The artist has also participated in Venice Biennale; BIENNALSUR; Asia Society Triennial; Gwangju Biennale; Busan Biennale; Whitney Biennial; Biennale de Lyon; Sao Paulo Biennale among others.
Significant solo exhibitions include Weaving The Light, Cisternerne, Frederiksberg Museums, Copenhagen (2023); Sowing into Painting, Wanås Konst, Wanås, Sweden (2020); Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site specific installation within the city of Poitiers, France (2019); Kimsooja: Archive of Mind, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts (2019); Zone of Nowhere, PICA, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia (2018); Weaving the World, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein (2017); MMCA Hyundai Motors Series 2016: KIMSOOJA - Archive of Mind, MMCA, Seoul, Korea (2016); Kimsooja - To Breathe - Zone of Zero, CAC Malaga, Spain (2016); Kimsooja: Thread Routes, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain (2015); Kimsooja - To Breathe, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France (2015); Unfolding, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (2013); Kimsooja: A Needle Woman, Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida (2012); Kimsooja: A Needle Woman, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2009); Black Box: Kimsooja, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (2008); Kimsooja, Respirar - Una Mujer Espejo / To Breathe - A Mirror Woman, Crystal Palace, commissioned by Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain (2006); Kimsooja, Respirare / To Breathe, A Site-Specific Installation at La Fenice Theater, in conjunction with a joint Solo Exhibition at Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venice, Italy (2006); Kimsooja, Journey into the World, EMST, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece (2005); Kimsooja, Conditions of Humanity, traveling show, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France; Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, PAC, Milan, Italy; Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany (2003-2004); Kimsooja: A Needle Woman, MoMA PS1, New York (2001) among others.
Kimsooja has also participated in multiple artist residencies around the world including at the Cité de la Céramique, Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres, Sèvres, France (2018) and Cornell University in New York (2014), and Le MAC/VAL, the Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne in Vitry-sur-Seine, France (2007), and the Center for Contemporary Art in Kitakyushu, Japan (1999), and World Views Program at the World Trade Center, New York (1998) and MoMA PS1, New York (1992).
Permanent and long-term installations include To Breathe, Metro station at Mairie de Saint-Ouen, Paris, France (2023); To Breathe, Metz Cathedral, France (2022); To Breathe, Oude Vest, Leiden, The Netherlands (2022); To Breathe, Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2021); Deductive Object, Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark (2017). Mariposa Land Port of Entry, Nogales, Arizona (2012); Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, Washington (2011).
Kimsooja’s work can be found in the permanent collections of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan; K21 Kunstsammlung, Dusseldorf, Germany; M+, Hong Kong; The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Museo d'Art Contemporanea Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy; Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon (FNAC), France; Musée MAC/VAL, Val de Marne, France; Museum of Modern Art, St. Etienne, France; MUDAM, Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art(MUDAM - Luxembourg), Luxembourg; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, Art Gallery New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, EMST, Athens, Greece; Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany; among many others.
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The Objects We Choose, Curated by Pedro Alonzo
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York 2024年6月20日 - 7月31日 -
KIMSOOJA: Meta-Painting
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York 2024年4月12日 - 6月14日 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe - Constellation
Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection, Paris 2024年3月20日 - 9月2日 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe - AlUla
Desert X AlUla, Saudi Arabia 2024年2月9日 - 3月23日 -
Kimsooja - (Un)folding Bottari
Humboldt Forum, Berlin, Germany 2023年10月25日 - 2024年2月19日 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe
Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, Paris, France 2023年4月14日 - 10月29日 -
Kimsooja: Weaving the Light
Cisternerne, Frederiksberg Museum, Denmark 2023年3月26日 - 11月30日 -
Kimsooja: Archive of Mind
Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation, Sydney, Australia 2022年12月3日 - 2024年1月31日 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe - Leiden
Oude Vest, Leiden, The Netherlands 2022年11月18日 - 2025年11月18日 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe
Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul 2021年10月8日 -
Kimsooja: Oku-Noto Triennale | Suzu 2020+
Wanzaki coast, Oku-Noto, Japan 2021年9月3日 - 11月5日 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe - The Flags
'Asia Society Triennial: We Do Not Dream Alone' at Asia Society Museum, New York 2020年10月27日 - 2021年6月27日 -
Kimsooja: Sowing Into Painting
Wanås Konst Sculpture Park, Sweden 2020年5月9日 - 11月1日 -
Kimsooja: Traversées\Kimsooja
Palais des ducs d’Aquitane, Poitiers, France 2019年10月12日 - 2020年1月19日 -
Kimsooja: Lotus: Zone of Zero
'Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance' at The Rubin Museum of Art, New York 2019年8月16日 - 2020年1月6日 -
Kimsooja: Weaving the World
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz 2017年9月22日 - 2018年1月21日 -
Kimsooja: Bottari
Documenta 14, Kassel, Germany 2017年6月10日 - 9月17日 -
Kimsooja: Archive of Mind
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCAHyundai Motor Series 2016), Seoul, Korea 2016年7月27日 - 2017年2月5日 -
Kimsooja: Unfolding
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada 2013年10月11日 - 2014年1月26日 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe: Bottari
Korean Pavilion: 55th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia 2013年6月1日 - 11月24日 -
Kimsooja: Respirar - Una Mujer Espejo / To Breathe - A Mirror Woman
Palacio de Cristal, Parque del Retiro, Madrid 2006年4月27日 - 7月24日
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Kimsooja: To Breathe –– Constellation
Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection 2024 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Thread Roots
Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden 2024 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Traversées
2020 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Interviews and Works
2017 - 2018 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Interviews and Works
2017 - 2018 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Archive of Mind
2016 - 2017 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe - Zone of Zero
2016 - 2017 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe
2015 - 2016 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Ko Un - Fascination
2015 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Unfolding
2013 - 2014 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe: Bottari
2013 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: To Breathe
2012 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Works In Process
2012 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Calm Chaos: Earth - Water - Fire - Air
2012 了解更多 -
Kimsooja
2012 了解更多 -
Kimsooja
2012 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Earth, Water, Fire, Air
2010 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Earth, Water, Fire, Air
2010 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA
2009 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA
2008 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: A Mirror Woman: The Sun & The Moon
2008 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA
2006 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Magasin 3
2006 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA : To Breathe / Respirare
2006 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA : Journey Into The World
2005 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA : To Breathe - A Mirror Woman
2004 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA : Conditions of Humanity
2003 - 2004 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA : Conditions of Humanity
2003 - 2004 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA
2003 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA : A Laundry Woman
2002 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA : A Needle Woman
2001 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: A Needle Woman
2000 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: A Needle Woman
2000 了解更多 -
KIMSOOJA: A Needle Woman
2000 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Kim Soo-Ja
1998 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Kim Soo-Ja
1998 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Cities on the Move
1998 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Soo-Ja Kim
1997 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Soo-Ja Kim
1994 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Kim, Soo-Ja
1991 了解更多 -
Kimsooja: Exhibition by Kim Soo-Ja
1988 了解更多