Artist Talk: Kimsooja
2 October 2025
8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Kimsooja speaks with curator Fatoş Üstek about her work and the ideas behind her exhibition.
On Thursday 2 October, Kimsooja returns to Amsterdam for an exclusive artist talk with curator Fatoş Üstek. In an in-depth conversation, she will discuss her work and the ideas behind her exhibition To Breathe – Mokum. Following the talk, the exhibition will be open to visitors until 10:00 PM.
The conversation will be conducted in English. Kimsooja’s exhibition will be on view at the Oude Kerk from 24 May to 9 November 2025.
About Kimsooja
Born in Daegu, South Korea, in 1957, Kimsooja is widely regarded as one of today’s most important artists. Her work is rooted in Korean traditions and encompasses diverse media, including installation, performance, video, and photography, and is exhibited worldwide. Recent solo exhibitions include presentations at the Bourse de Commerce, Paris, in 2024; Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, in 2024; and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 2015. She represented South Korea at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 and took part in Documenta 12 in Kassel in 2007. The FENIX Migration Museum in Rotterdam recently acquired her key work Bottari Truck – Migrateurs (2007–2009).
About Fatoş Üstek
Fatoş Üstek is an independent curator and writer, working internationally. She is the author of The Art Institution of Tomorrow, Reinventing the Model (2024), Co-founder and Managing Director of non-profit community interest company FRANK Fair Artist Pay and Curator of Frieze Sculpture in London. Alongside leading international projects, she holds governance roles in arts organizations: in the UK (Chair, New Contemporaries), Netherlands (editorial advisory, Extra Extra Magazine), and Germany (advisory board, Urbane Kuenste Ruhr). Üstek is a member of the International Association of Art Critics AICA UK, ICI, IKT and founding member of AWITA (Association of Women in the Arts). She was previously among other things Director of the Liverpool Biennial, Director of the Roberts Institute of Art, Curator of Art Night, London (2017) and Associate Curator of the 10th Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2014).
About the exhibition
Korean artist Kimsooja gained international recognition for her poetic installations exploring themes of migration, uprooting, the longing for home, and identity. Especially for the Oude Kerk, she created her most extensive series of bottari: iconic textile bundles inspired by traditional Korean wrapping cloths, filled with clothing from Amsterdam communities. In addition, she covered the 44,000 panes of the church’s towering windows with transparent film that refracts sunlight into rainbow colours. To Breathe – Mokum offers a meditative experience on the idea of coming home and the things we carry with us or leave behind.
