MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2016: KIMSOOJA – Archive of Mind

The third artist for the ‘Hyundai Motor Series’ at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea(MMCA) was Kimsooja. Born in Daegu, Korea in 1957, the conceptual multimedia artist has participated in exhibitions at distinguished art museums including LACMA(Los Angeles County Museum of Art), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Hirshhorn Museum. She was also invited to international events such as the ‘Yokohama Triennale’ and the ‘Whitney Biennial’, and presented at the Korean Pavilion at the ‘55th Venice Biennale’.
Kim introduces traditional sewing materials such as needle, thread, cloth, and Bottari(fabric) with the action of sewing. Based on the materials and actions, she gives substance to metaphysical concepts across genres such as performance, video presentation, and installation art.

Kimsooja's works with the Bottari(bedsheet-like cloth used for packing personal belongings) has earned her the epithet 'Bottari artist'. The Bottari, which can gather items but also be the means to carry them over distances, is used by the artist as a philosophical metaphor for her works. Her works embody the pain and sorrow of displaced people who had to wander about with all their livelihood on their backs; her works kindled a contemporary understanding that transcended both history and borders.
Through <Hyundai Motor Series 2016: Kimsooja - Archive of Mind>, the artist took a new approach to the past three decades of inquisitive meditations and experiments on life and art. This exhibition featured a large-scale installation work that requires audience participation, also involving multiple media such as video, installation, and sculpture. The artist herself claimed the exhibition as “a project that will be a meaningful juncture for developing work.”

The participatory installation <Archive of Mind> opened to the public for the first time at the MMCA. Examining the implied regularity within the “act of creating”, the artist began her work after being inspired by the act of wrapping in her previous bottari series. Visitors were encouraged to roll a handful of clay into a spherical ball to be placed on a wooden table. Participants experienced multiple levels of interaction, from experiencing the inherent properties of soil to simultaneously altering its form into something particular. The collection of spherical clay balls placed along with the sound installation <Unfolding Sphere> formed a rhythmical and contrasted juxtaposition.

“When looking at people surrounding the table, it feels like them being one united community.”
<MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2016: Kimsooja - Archive of Mind> has ended its 6 months journey, from July 2016 to February 2017. One of the main works of this exhibition, <Archive of Mind>, which has been completed through visitors’ participation, has emptied and filled their hearts through the act of making clay balls. Kimsooja mentions that the process of rolling and pressing clay balls to make it as round as possible, can be perceived as a symbolic presentation of the balance and imbalance existing in our real world. Moreover, she adds that each individual could experience becoming one united community by accumulating numerous minds. ‘Hyundai Meets’ is a film series introducing Hyundai Motor’s various art initiatives and its insights - here is the eighth episode with Kimsooja