Opening September 21th
Exhibition open to the public from September 22nd
Visits: Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Encounter is a performative photograph. Kimsooja says “For this work, I placed a mannequin clad in silk sheets in the central intersection of the cross-shaped hall of the museum tower and called it a 'performance'. People then came and watched the figure/sculpture for a while, expecting some kind of action. Time passed and the figure did not move, but instead of assuming that the figure was an artist, the public started to walk around it in an attempt to understand. Thus, I interpreted this interaction on the part of the audience as a kind of 'relational performance'. That was the original work; the photograph is a recreation or a record of a similar performative sculpture that shrouds a real woman”.
Since performative action permeates Kimsooja's artistic practice as part of her critical outlook on artistic tradition as well as a way of getting to know the world and herself, the performative role of the spectator creatively expands her approach.
The works gathered here, as well as those that make up the other chapters of Kimsooja's presentation in Buenos Aires, place the spectator in a space of serene uncertainty and with it, perhaps, in an existential position akin to the one that motivates the artist in each of her works. Diana B. Wechsler
KIMSOOJA BUENOS AIRES is presented at BIENALSUR 2021 with the support of Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism of Korea, Korea Arts Management Service, and the grant program Fund for Korean Art Abroad (FKAA); the Korean Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires and MECENAZGO.
