Transitory Workplace, 56, 2020
Commision: Anja Lutz, A—Z presents
Collaborator: Hans-Gerog Gaul (photography)
Exhibition title: Transitory Workplace, 56
Venue: A—Z presents
Period: 2020.05.28—2020.07.22
Transitory Workplace 56 transforms A—Z into Na Kim’s studio for fifty-six days. It presents her temporary working activities at a provisional workplace and the encounters of others with diverse purposes. While Na Kim usually spends around half the year traveling due to the breadth of her work and the places it takes her, she is now confronted with the situation of the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. This entrusts the body to a time of uncertainty. The anxiety felt by being enclosed in a physical environment naturally probes solitude in daily life and summons the space of memories. By allowing her to set her own rules for this private workplace for fifty-six days in a public gallery space, this project makes abstract uncertainty concrete with physical space and daily action, demonstrating an attitude of observation and appreciation for the value of everyday life. Transitory Workplace 56 exists beyond the realm of physical space and is instead the accumulation of time in space. It mediates the intersection of these two layers of experience and attempts to capture, collect, document, and present them.
Transitory Workplace 56 is for all kinds of uncertainty.
Transitory Workplace 56 is about solitude for togetherness.
Transitory Workplace 56 is for learning by doing and sharing.
Transitory Workplace 56 is for re-projecting and re-producing.
Transitory Workplace 56 keeps daily documentation of 56 days.
Transitory Workplace 56 is for communication with the outside world in a private way.
The title of the work originates from her 2012 project Transitory Workplace 53, from when she migrated back to Korea, ending a period of many years spent living in the Netherlands. Na Kim has been interested in the ideas of space and its extension. She previously explored these various questions in works such as Situation Room (2010), Transitory Workplace 53 (2012), and To Be a Loner (2015). In her recent solo exhibition in a children’s gallery, Bottomless Bag (2020), the large-scale installation remained under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Staying in the bare, white cube for more than a month and recollecting her previous works acted as a catalyst for a newer version of Transitory Workplace in 2020.
During the exhibition period, Na Kim will lead her daily work at A—Z, dividing the space into different zones of activity as part of her design and creatively tackling the current safety measures. She will keep a precise schedule with daily presentations of her work exercise and carry out projects in her studio-gallery. By appointment, she will arrange personal meetings.