Kimsooja: Archive of Mind

Archive of Mind, Kimsooja’s 2016 MMCA Hyundai Motor Series, was an immersive participatory presentation where visitors were invited to form balls of clay that were then left on a large wooden table in the gallery. An acoustic sound performance, Unfolding Sphere, simultaneously played throughout the space, creating a meditative and multi-sensory experience that continued Kimsooja’s commitment to non-doing and non-making as part of her artistic practice. Archive of Mind was inspired by Kimsooja’s earlier work with Bottari, traditional Korean cloth bundles that are used to transport everyday objects and that similarly require a tactile intimacy to create.

Also on view as part of Archive of Mind was Kimsooja’s Deductive Object, a large ovoid sculpture set atop a mirrored plinth. Inspired by the Indian stone Brahmanda or “cosmic egg,” which signifies the birth of totality, Deductive Object was wrapped in a band of the five traditional colors of Korea, known as an Obangsaek.

Over the course of her 30-year career, Kimsooja (born in Daegu, Korea, in 1957) has explored existential ideas of self and other via site-specific installations, performance, video, photography, sound, light, and everyday objects. She continually revisits and recontextualizes materials as a means of addressing social issues such as migration, exile, and violence. Kimsooja’s work is included in museum collections including Seoul Museum of Art and the Musée d’art Contemporain, Lyon. She has had recent solo exhibitions at ARKO Art Centre (2021); Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostelle, Spain (2021); Boghossian Foundation (2020); and Peabody Essex Museum (2019).