Kim Sooja (김수자)

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As a nomadic artist, Kim Sooja’s colorful bundle is a metaphor for migration. The fabric symbolizes the unique art style for this female artist. Kim has spent more than two decades sewing, covering, unfolding, wrapping, and moving around with the botarri truck. The bottari, literally translated from Korean, refers to the bundles made of traditional fabrics and bedcovers. The fabric is the soul of Kim Sooja’s video performance. To Kim, sewing is as important as painting and sculpting. In her video, Kim has her back to the camera and blends her image into various cities across the borders. What packed in the bottari is not only her belongings but her memories, heritage, and identity. Kim Sooja’s video work is personal yet political.

[Kimsooja: Art & Everyday Life | Art21 “Exclusive” by Art21 on Youtube]

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Kim Sooja, Bottari Truck – Migrateurs, 2007

 

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Kim Sooja, Bottari Truck – Migrateurs, 2007

 

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Kim Sooja, “Cities on the Move: 2727 Kilometers Bottari Truck,” 1997

 

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Kim Sooja, “Cities on the Move: 2727 Kilometers Bottari Truck,” 1997

 

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Kim Sooja, Bottari, Digital C-Print, 22 x 30 in., 2009

 

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Kim Sooja, “Bottari,” Used bed covers and used clothes, installation at “Partage d’exotismes,” 5th Lyon Biennale, 2000

 

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Kim Sooja, Encounter – Looking into Sewing, Digital Flex Print, 80 x 46 in., 2013

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kim Sooja (김수자)

Kim Sooja is a conceptual artist based in Seoul, New York, and Paris. She graduated from Hong-Ik University, Seoul. Kim participated in the São Paulo Biennale in 1998 and the Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion in 2013, among other international biennials. Her solo exhibitions include in MoMA PS1; Cristal Palace, Reina Sofia; the Vancouver Art Gallery; Kunsthalle Wien; Kunsthalle Bern; Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein; Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, UK; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Padliglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan; Museum of Contemporary Art Lyon; Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Musée d’Art Moderne Saint-Étienne; The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; PAC Milan; Daegu Art Museum; ICC Tokyo; CCA Kitakyushu; the Plateau Samsung Museum, Seoul; Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain; Centre Pompidou Metz, France, among many exhibitions.

 

Curatorial Statement: Digital Aesthetics

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Creative Commons LicenseThe images of the artworks credit to the artists: Pey-Chwen Lin, Mariko Mori, Cao Fei, and Kim Sooja. The text of Digital Aesthetics is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.