Seeking to explain man’s role in the global world, Kim Sooja has drawn on the traditions and cultural background of her own Korea. An example of this is the video “I Bottari” dedicated to refugees from Kosovo. The bottari in the title are the bedspreads that are given to Korean newlyweds to wish them happiness. They are also used to wrap the dead and made into bundles to carry a person’s belongings; at the same time, they are a universal metaphor for movement.

At her first personal exhibition of some importance in Italy, at Milan’s PAC, the Korean artist is presenting video projections and a large installation entitled “A Laundry Woman”, which once again features the large and brightly coloured bottari, secured to fine metal wires and hung between the walls of the pavilion, like clothes hung out to dry.

In the video installation “A Needle Woman”, it is the artist herself who becomes the tip of a needle. Kim Sooja, immobile in a crowd of passers-by in Shanghai, Tokyo, New York and New Delhi, forces rivers of people to side step her, changing their course. On eight video screens, the artist is seen from behind and visitors observe the faces and various reactions of the people avoiding her while the streets of the various cities appear to converge in the centre of the rooms. E.S.

23.6.2004 – 19.9.2004
Kim Sooja. Conditions of Humanity
PAC, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea
Via Palestro 14, Milano
T +39-02-76009085
https://www.pac-milano.org