testing space through presence
Work of a South Korean artist Kimsooja it alters our perception of the world as it exists, bringing light and even optimism in existing spaces rather than imagining new ones.
Over the past three decades, the artist has developed a body of work that moves between performance and site-specific installation art. In these formats, it returns to a consistent approach. It works with existing environments to adapt how they are perceived through stillness and light.
While her site-specific works have occupied contexts since Venice Biennale at Trade exchangehave even extended to underground galleries and vast deserts. Her work has shaped a distinct way of thinking about space as something that can be recalibrated rather than redesigned.
Kimsooja, image by Malthe Ivarsson © The cisterns | title: Forest Festival of the Arts Okayama, Japan, 2025
a body that displaces the city
An obvious starting point is A Needle Woman, a long-running series that Kimsooja began in the late 1990s. In cities such as Tokyo, Mexico City, Delhi and Shanghai, the artist she stands still with her back to the camera as pedestrians move around her. Although the gesture is minimal, it changes the way the space is read. The density of the road becomes more apparent and the movement patterns are focused on a fixed body.
She describes herself as a needle passing the fabric, with the city understood as a field of movement. Metaphor is based on physical experience. Standing still on a busy street is a tangible act that changes perception for both the viewer and passersby. This project tests how public space can be revived without redesign. He suggests that a change in behaviour, even a small one, can redefine the way a city is understood.
Kimsooja, A Needle Woman, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City, Shanghai, 1999-2001
bringing optimism through light
Kimsooja extends this approach to the architectural space with works such as her series, To Breathe, where she uses diffraction film and natural light to transform interior spaces. Windows and surfaces are covered with translucent material that refracts light into changing color. As visitors move through the space, the environment changes subtly, with variations in intensity and hue throughout the day.
The intervention is precise and restrained, as the atmosphere of the unchanged building comes to life. There is no central object to focus on, just a field of light that responds to movement and time. The thin work reframes architecture as something that can be adapted through perception rather than construction. In a discussion of utopia, he suggests that environments can be recalibrated to support awareness and shared experience with minimal means.
Kimsooja, ‘To Breathe’, Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann, 2022, courtesy of Kimsooja Studio (see here)
work on existing structures
This method becomes more pronounced in Weaving of Light at Copenhagen’s Cisternerne, a former underground tank defined by darkness, water and a grid of concrete columns. Kimsooja introduces transparent panels coated with diffraction film, allowing light to enter and diffuse across surfaces. Reflections shift onto the water and walls, and visitors moving through the space become part of the changing light field.
The tank structure remains untouched. What changes is how it is perceived and inhabited. The work raises awareness of sound, moisture and movement, drawing attention to pre-existing conditions. It works as a clear spatial test. It shows again how a fixed environment can be transformed through a minimal system involving light and time.
Kimsooja, Weaving the Light at Cisternerne, Copenhagen, image © Torben Escerod
extends to the landscape
In To Breathe — Coachella Valleycreated for Desert X 2025Kimsooja applies the same approach to the landscape scale. A spiral glass structure wrapped in diffraction film sits in the open desert, exposed to sunlight and changing atmospheric conditions. As light passes through the surface, it refracts into color, coloring the surrounding terrain and changing the way the horizon is perceived.
Here, no attempt is made to reshape the desert, nor to introduce an invasive construction. Instead, the work forms a light system that responds to the movement of the sun and the viewer’s position. The landscape experience changes throughout the day, with color and reflection appearing and dissipating in real time. This extends her method beyond the room, to show that the same principles can work at the scale of the territory.
Erimos X View of Kimsooja’s 2025 installation, To Breathe – Coachella Valley, image © Lance Gerber
a method that moves around environments
In these projects, Kimsooja maintains a consistent approach while working in very different conditions. Urban streets, interior rooms, underground tanks and open desert landscapes are all treated as sites of adaptation rather than replacement. The method remains constant, while each frame introduces new variables.
This continuity is central to how her work aligns with utopia as a method. Rather than suggesting a single ideal environment, it develops a way of working that can be applied to different locations. Each project builds on the previous one, expanding the scope of what can be tested. Change occurs through repetition, variation, and attention to existing conditions.
