A pioneering figure in Korean and Argentinian art, working in sculpture, painting, and printmaking, Kim Yun Shin has travelled extensively during her life, an experience which is deeply reflected in her work. At the Biennale Arte, Kim presents a group of eight sculptures, four made in wood between 1979 and 1986, and four in stone, produced between 1991 and 2001. Conceptually, all of Kim’s works since the late 1970s possess the same title: Add Two Add One, Divide Two Divide One. Add and Divide are connected to Chinese philosophy’s Yin and Yang, which in turn represent multiple dichotomies and opposing concepts that are closely intertwined – two that are one, one that is two. Yin represents fragmentation, splitting, division, while Yang represents convergence, integration, addition. Kim’s operations and sculptural process are precisely those – she divides, splits, extracts from the stone and wood to construct her work. In this sense, at the core of Kim’s sculptural work in wood and stone lies the opposing relationship between art and nature, culture and landscape, geometry and the organic – which, through her laborious sculptural process, become one and two.
This is the first time the work of Kim Yun Shin is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Adriano Pedrosa
