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A conversation and book launch about the work of Korean-French artist Soun-Gui Kim
Slought is pleased to announce "Encounters with Soun-Gui Kim: Writings, 1975-2021," a conversation and book launch about the work of the celebrated Korean-French artist, on Friday, September 23, 2022 from 6-7:30pm. Join the artist, editors Jean-Michel Rabaté and Aaron Levy, and Taeyi Kim of the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a special screening of Forest Poems (2021), a recent video installation, followed by a wide-ranging conversation about her work and the publication. A reception will follow.
Since the 1970s, pioneering artist Soun-Gui Kim has drawn inspiration from Eastern and Western philosophical traditions in developing a playful and enigmatic aesthetic. This landmark trilingual publication of 669 pages, collects for the first time selected writings by and about the artist, including essays long and short, interviews, fragments, photographs, and privately circulated pronouncements, including exchanges Soun-Gui Kim has had with her contemporaries. Follow Soun-Gui Kim as she engages her interlocutors—including philosophers Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy, artist Nam-June Paik, and scholars Jean-Pierre Cometti and Wan-Kyong Song, among others—in conversation about art and creativity, silence and chance, and the role of technology in contemporary life.
Special thanks to Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) for their generous support of the translation and printing process, as well as translators Maxime Dargaud-Fons and Myeong-Kyo Jeong without whose expertise and dedication this publication would not be possible.
Soun-Gui Kim was born in Buyeo, Korea, in 1946. She graduated from the Department of Art at Seoul National University in 1971, with an interest in the deconstruction of painting and large-scale performances and video works in public space. In 1974, she accepted a professorship at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Marseille. In 1982, Soun-Gui Kim's travels to various countries around the world led to her intensive engagement with the culture and art of the East and West. While in New York, she associated with renowned video artists such as Nam June Paik, Ko Nakajima, Ira Schneider, and Frank Gillette.
With her deepening interest in video and multimedia, she organized Video & Multimedia: Soun-Gui Kim and her invitees (1986), with the participation of Nam June Paik, John Cage and others. Since the late 1980s, issues related to the spread of global capitalism and structural changes in society caused by the internet have become particularly important for her. Her art projects also frequently combine poetry, philosophy, art, and technology.
