On the Move

„I was inspired by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Hou Hanru’s exhibition Cities on the Move, a project in which I participated. When I was young, my family was always moving from one city or village to another due to my father’s job. I often enjoyed playing with my school friends in my teenage years by writing down all the names of the cities and villages in which I had lived, connecting them to one another with lines like long sewn stitches in between the names oft he towns. The title of Cities on the Move reminded me of our family’s nomadic life and inspired me to do the Cities on the Move – 2727 Kilometers Bottari Truck“ (1997) performance, revisiting all of the villages and cities of my youth in an eleven-day trip across Korea.“ (Kimsooja 2013)

 

Cities on the Move – 2727 Kilometers Bottari Truck – this is the title of a project of south korean artist Soo-Ja Kim. On a Bottari truck, with traditional bundles of cloth to carry objects, we can travel with her, criss-crossing space to places that are relevant for her own biography. As she is allowing us to take her perspective, we can widen our own pespective.

 

Cities are on the move. Soo-Ja Kims work adresses issues of migration, of cultural identity. Migration is as one major aspect of globalization, and major migration movements are yet to come.

 

But not only cities are on the move. Students and lecturers are on the move, too. More and more students carry within them different cultural spaces. More and more of them will work in intercultural teams and settings. Many of them study abroad, or travel, leave their country for jobs. This is an invitation to design diversity and to express diversity in design as well.

 

Where we come from, where we go, influences who we are and what we design.

 

Kimsooja. Ways of Being. A conversation Between Daina Augaitis and Kimsooja. In: Kimsooja (2013). Unfolding.

Kimsooja.com