Yunchul Kim: Gyre

​​Artist Yunchul Kim will present a series of interconnected and monumental installations in the Korean Pavilion at the 59th International Venice Biennale.

Gyre marks the (in)visible paradigm shifts of our present time, where one era ends and a new one begins, like the ends and the beginnings of a continuous spiral. We are at the “swollen” boundaries of complex political, cultural, social, and existential entanglements, accelerated by the aftermath of the pandemic, human-machine dilemmas, ecological disasters, to warfare – all a shadow of the anthropocentric condition of the world. At the periphery of these tensions is the world viewed through the lens of materials, where objects, beings, and nature all co-exist on an equal footing.

According to Kim, “in the infinite cycles of creation and extinction, the world and its matter constantly gyrates and descends. Gyre explores the world as a labyrinth where ‘mattereality’ matters rather than materiality, embracing non-human objects and material reality.” This permeates everything from energy to matter, life, and the universe.

The exhibition will be filled with Kim’s “pataphysical” installations of nameless objects and materials, all powered by the invisible matter from the outer space, such as a flare-like whirl of fluids of The Dust of Suns (2022), seawater travelling through spiral-shaped microtubes of Impulse (2018), and the giant knots of Chroma V (2022). Gyre will be a swirling cosmic event in the Giardini that invites visitors on a journey into the world of materials.

The exhibition book is due to launch in September 2022 with an artist talk and a performance. A series of talks, roundtable discussions and tours will take place online and in-person over the course of the Biennale. A virtual form of the exhibition will launch in June 2022 via theVOV and the Korean Pavilion website. Visit the website to stay informed.

About the artist
Yunchul Kim (b. 1970, South Korea) is an artist and electronic music composer whose practice focuses on the artistic potential and the reality of matter through installation, drawings, writing, and music. Informed by his transdisciplinary research combining philosophy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, cosmology, anthropology, and religion, Kim researches complex ontological entanglements of humans, non-humans, and things, while restaging such a “world of materials”. Recent exhibitions include Yokohama Triennale, Japan (2020); KUMU, Estonia (2020); National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2020); iMAL, Belgium (2020); CCCB, Spain (2019); and ZKM, Germany (2018). In 2014, he founded Studio Locus Solus in Seoul.

About the curator
Young-chul Lee (b.1957, South Korea), Professor Emeritus at Kaywon University of Art & Design, Korea, is a curator, art critic, and expert in urban public design. Lee began his curatorial career in 1993 when he co-curated Across the Pacific at the Queens Museum of Art in New York City, United States. He was the first Director of the Nam June Paik Art Center, the Artistic Director of Gwangju Biennale (1997), the co-curator of Busan Biennale (2000), and the Founder of the Anyang Public Art Project (2005). More recently, he served as the President and the Artistic Director of the Asia Culture Center (2011-2015), Korea, during its preparatory period.

Deputy Curator: Jungyeon Park
Assistant Curators: Kahee Jeong, Hyun Seo (Catherine) Chiang
Production: Studio Locus Solus (Earl Park, Gisu Chun, Hocheol Shin, Jangwoo Choi, Jisan Lee, Minji Lee, Minyoung Jung, Oui An, Songin Bang, Yeongho Kim)
Pavilion Manager: Eun Jeong Kim
Editorial Manager: Kyoo Lee
Commissioner: Arts Council Korea
In partnership with: Hyundai Motor Company
Research in collaboration with: Korea Institute for Advanced Study
With the support of: Barakat Contemporary, Korean Air

Press contacts
Carlotta Dennis-Lovaglio, Scott & Co, Carlotta [​at​] scott-andco.com / T +44 (0) 20 3487 0077 (UK Office)