Artist travels the world in search of connections

The work of Kim Sooja at the National Museum of Contemporary Art

Korean-born artist Kim Sooja photographed next to the bundles known as her bottari pieces.

By Alexandra Koroxenidis - Kathimerini English Edition

Every period in time produces its own art, but it also breeds its own type of artist. In recent years there has been much talk about the nomadic kind, the artist who travels around the world and settles in different countries. In many ways, this type of artist fits a globalized world, a world in which distances are shrinking as both communication and mobility become easier.

These constantly migrating artists also seem to fit a world in which migration has become a widespread phenomenon. Like migrants, they are faced with issues of social and cultural adjustment, displacement and integration.

Such issues occupy Korean-born artist Kim Sooja, a nomadic type of artist educated in Paris and currently settled in New York, who travels to all corners of the globe in order to connect with other cultures and people and to experience life in its different cultural expressions.

Her work is shown in “Kim Sooja: Journey into the World,” an exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens being held as part of the museum’s “Transcultures” exhibition program. The program is aimed at unraveling this phenomenon of artistic and cultural mobility in the present day through the work of contemporary artists.

Being an artist constantly on the move, Kim Sooja uses her body as her instrument. Her works are mostly performances, “actions” that she sets up usually in open-air and public spaces. The actions are presented as a final work in the form of a film or video. Interestingly, in most of these performances, Sooja is standing completely still, making her body seem like a sculpture: In the video installation “Needle Woman” (1999-2000), for example, eight different screens shows Sooja standing completely still amid a moving crowd in eight different cities (London, Shanghai, Tokyo, New Delhi, Mexico City, Cairo, Lagos and New York).

In what is a Zen-like act of absolute discipline, an act that actually comes quite close to meditation, Sooja observes the world that moves around her, lets herself be observed but is also caught in an extended process of self-observation. Her stillness helps her become more aware of her environment and sensitizes the viewer to develop a feeling of how our physical presence relates to our daily surroundings and the people among which we move.

Sooja’s work is indeed about capturing the immaterial, the aura of energy that is not perceptible yet is so crucial in how we experience the world and connect with other people. Connectedness is a fundamental concept in her work, whether the connectedness with nature, history, memories, other cultures or people.

Sooja uses the idea of sewing as a metaphor for connecting, and in some pieces thinks of her body as a needle. This also explains why fabrics are an essential part of her work. Not just any kind of fabric but the so-called “bottari” which are traditional Korean bedcovers that come in an impressive gamut and unusual prints, most of them based on Korean traditional symbolism. Bottari are usually offered to newly married couples and meant as wishes for longevity, fertility and love. Kim Sooja considers bottari to be like energy fields that bring good tidings for the newlyweds and bear traces of the couple’s life. In the artist’s work, they are shown as bundles arranged on the floor or are hung one after the other across clothes lines. The bundles refer to migration and mobility but, as with the rest of the bottari pieces, they are principally meant as extensions of our bodies.

This is probably what makes the bottari pieces appear so strangely moving, despite the fact that they are really nothing more than bundles of fabrics tied together in a knot or spread in lines and, as works of art, do not really require any complicated work or skill to make.

But then again, this is where Sooja’s capacity lies: in making simple things that we take for granted become important. Meditation, where nothing appears to be happening on the outside yet a lot is going on inside is perhaps an analogy of her work. Kim Sooja’s work has this Zen-like Asian quality about it. For some it may appear perhaps a bit effortless or maybe too quiet and esoteric. Yet most will find that the quietness and solitary character of her work has an engaging, soothing quality about it and will probably leave the exhibition feeling more connected both with the world and with themselves.

“Kim Sooja: Journey into the World,” an exhibition organized by the National Museum of Contemporary Art at the Athens Concert Hall’s exhibition hall (Vasilissis Sofias and 1 Kokkali) through May 29. Educational programs for children available. Info at 210.924.2111 or www.emst.gr.