ART CITIES:Milan-Kimsooja

To Breathe – Zone of Nowhere, 2018, Installation view, 12 nylon flags, 243×152 cm (each) Unique, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-MilanAddressing existential issues of self and others, Kimsooja’s work spans site-specific installation, performance, video and photography using sound, light and daily objects. Kimsooja brings together art and life through a conceptual and structural investigation of materiality/immateriality, mobility/immobility, in a manner of non-making and non-doing, which inverts the notion of the artist as the predominant actor.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galleria Raffaella Cortese

Kimsooja’s solo exhibition “To Breathe-The Flags” is on presentation at Galleria Raffaella Cortese and rus concurrently to her site specific installation “To Breathe” for the Cappella Portinari at the Basilica di Sant’Eustorgio in Milan. Kimsooja presents two works that are strongly connected to each other: a video and an installation. The space at via Stradella 4 features the video “To Breathe-The Flags”, a transnational state of identity that merges two hundred 46 national flags as indistinguishable cross-pollinating visual symbols, their purported intent emptied and reconfigured by layering and cross-fading. Since the images are semi-transparent, the colors and designs of multiple flags are intermixed. What results is a visual and symbolic breakdown of hierarchies, and transcendence of boundaries blurring the distinctions between different countries. The work also includes flags from nations that are not internationally recognized, such as Scotland or Tibet, as well as nations whose flags are forbidden in other countries, such as North Korea. In merging the flags without restriction, “To Breathe-The Flags” provides a representation of the new nations or non-nations within its compressed layers, briefly dissolving their discrepancies and blurring their national identities. In the first iteration of this work, which was commissioned by the IOC Olympic Museum for the London 2012 Summer Olympics, the artist layered flags of all the participating countries in a reflection of the unifying spirit of the games. To “Breathe-Zone of Nowhere” is showed at the space at via Stradella 1 and translates video stills from “To Breathe-The Flags” into unitary images: visitors can walk through the installation of 12moving flags as if they were also interweaving between and beyond the national boundaries. The visitor, moving across the gallery, constantly shifts their own point of view.

Info: Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Via Stradella 1, Milan & Via Stradella 1, Milan, Duration: 14/3-5/5/18, Days & hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-13:00 & 15:00-19:30, www.galleriaraffaellacortese.com

Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan
Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan

 

 

Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan
Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan

 

 

Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan
Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan

 

 

Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan
Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan

 

 

Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan
Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan

 

 

Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan
Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan

 

 

Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan
Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan

 

 

Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan
Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan

 

 

Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan
Kimsooja, To Breathe – The Flags, 2012, Installation view, Single channel video animation, silent, Bluray disc 40:41 loop , Ed. of 6 + 1 AP, Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri, Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Raffaella Cortese-Milan