Dan Kim: Coucou! is on view at Nendo Galerie, Marseille
April 17 – June 1, 2024
Nendo Galerie is delighted to present Coucou!, the first exhibition by Dan Kim (b. 1992, lives in Seoul) in Europe, following a residency at Villa Arson, Nice.
An exclamation: Coucou! Surprise and astonishment: Coucou! Greeting and meeting: Coucou! Dan Kim’s art is all this and more.
At once unstructured and remarkably constructed, his sculptures are the result of assembling elements he has modeled himself, to which are sometimes added fragments of broken ceramics, scraps that have had one existence and are about to find another.
Although there seems to be no apparent logic behind the final form, the eye is impressed by a remarkable science of tension, balance and composition, which is fully expressed in the sense of freeze-frame conveyed by his works; as if the intrinsic speed and movement they exude had suddenly frozen: Coucou!
Through the multiplicity of viewpoints, the swarming of minute details, the endless imbrications and the audacity of contrasts, the whole is like a visual abyss, almost a deep end into which the viewer is invited to plunge, towards unfathomable depths. All the more so since his mastery of glazing, which leads him to manufacture most of his glazes himself, helps to maintain a formidable dynamic in his works.
But if Dan Kim strives to instill disruptive elements into his work – ceramic fragments, of course, but also body piercings, decals or discreet touches of gold to dress up junctions… – it’s not just with a view to upsetting a balance or an established order, but rather to reconsidering our global understanding of a hegemonic culture. Integrating the broken is not simply a matter of giving new life to the discarded, but of using them to generate new meanings. Just as the irruption of Teddy Bear or Hello Kitty in an abstract composition provokes incongruous or unexpected readings: Coucou! In other words, it’s a matter of including otherness in his works, and inviting us with subtle touches to reconsider what is often perceived as part of alternative cultures, not to say subcultures.
The work has become a skilful mixture, where the incongruities of language end up forming a whole and making sense through the surprise and clash of cultures: Coucou!
Synonymous with “hi”, “coucou” is an onomatopoeia close to the call of the bird of the same name in French (cuckoo), used to indicate a presence.
The exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of Villa Arson, Nice
Contact
clay@nendogalerie.com
Nendo Galerie
31, rue Sylvabelle
13006 Marseille
France
Photos © Jean-Christophe Lett.
