KIMSOOJA. NeedleWoman (An exhibition held in the context of [PRO]SMOTR Festival of Video Art) (The Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum)

KIMSOOJA (Kim Sooja) is an American artist of Korean origin. In her paradoxical performances, installations, and video-works she combines ideas of the traditional and the global, the full and the empty, the motionless and the flow of time. The "NeedleWoman" installation consists of four video-projections. Each of screens, placed along the walls of a dark room, shows a woman standing still. This is the artist who is modestly dressed and is turned with her back to the viewer. She is the NeedleWoman. During the seven minutes masses of passers-by flow around her; they are at their business and often pay no attention to the still figure. Footings took place in the noisiest streets of four cities: Delhi, Tokyo, Shanghai, and New York. Kim Sooja is always still and turned with her back to us. Passers-by, which constantly move towards viewers, see what we cannot. We do not understand why is she standing like this, is she crying or laughing, is she pretty or not? The NeedleWoman has no personal character. Wrapped in neutrally grey clothes, the artist's figure seems immaterial, balancing between absence and presence. The NeedleWoman manages to go through flow of people and fabric of streets without moving at all.