Kimsooja


A tradition of the nomadic artist

Like many artists of recent decades, Kimsooja is a nomadic artist who makes exile and travel the knot of her work. The figure of the nomadic artist and surveyor comes from a long tradition, travelling to cities where art seemed most inspiring or guided by patrons, where his production had the chance to develop. Today this perpetual displacement, both physical and figurative, has become a common lot, won by globalization and the reduction of time and distance. It is even a "genre" in itself, as we speak of a genre film. Many artists are "voluntary" exiles driven by personal reasons or curiosity, even more are political exiles.

The departure, arrival and crossing, leaving mentally and physically, possible lines of leaks are produced by many artists and one will be able to cross there marble vespas of Gabriel Orozco, boats of Claudio Parmiggiani, scattered stones of Richard Long, maps of Mona Hatoum or the steps of Francis Alÿs.

Kimsooja's work is thus part of this vast family of geographical artists whose personal journey is marked by the back and forth. Very early, in 1985, as soon as he finished his painting studies at the Hong-IK University (Seoul) and at the Lithography workshop of the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, Kimsooja began to exhibit internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include To Breathe - A mirror woman, at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid in 2006 and Lotus : Zone of Zero, an assemblage of a monumental lotus lantern rosette with Gregorian, Islamic and Tibetan chants in the Rotunda of the Ravenstein Gallery, Brussels, 2008.