In This Vessel We shall be Kept: Palais de Tokyo presents works by the Korean artist Ayoung Kim

Ayoung Kim (Music Composition: Heera Kim), Zepheth, Whale Oil from the Hanging Gardens to You, Shell 1, 2014.

PARIS.- Palais de Tokyo is hosting the first solo exhibition in France by the Korean artist Ayoung Kim (b. 1979 in Seoul). This follows on from her residency at the Pavillon Neuflize OBC, Palais de Tokyo’s research lab (November 2015 - June 2016). The immersive sound installation that she presents at Palais de Tokyo takes root in the basement of the Palais Garnier - specifically in the depths of its famous underground “lake” – which she uses to stage a long forgotten mythical flood. 

Ayoung Kim works with singers, actors and composers using images, texts and voices to create narrative structures. Throughout the installations and performance she has created, the visitor is placed at the centre of a choral arrangement: voices speak, sing, whisper, talk over each other, interrupt each other, emit sounds then fall silent. 

In keeping with her family history, Ayoung Kim has carried out extensive research on a fossil energy that has become a central motif of modernity and globalisation: oil. She recounts the development of the oil industry in the Middle east in her work, Z epheth, whale Oil From the Hanging Gardens to you, Shell 3 , presented in the main exhibition of the 56th venice Biennale ( All the world’s Futures , curator Okwui enwezor, 2015). Based on extracts from extremely varied sources, it leads the spectator on a walk through history, offering both personal and collective interpretations of the elements presented. 

In Paris, Ayoung Kim opened up a whole new field of experimentation, using the Palais Garnier’s famous underground «lake» as the starting point. This artificial reservoir, which dates back to the construction of the edifice, is coated with pitch - a petroleum derivative with waterproofing properties - with which Noah supposedly caulked the hull of his ark. During the artist’s sound installation at Palais de Tokyo, the Opera Garnier will become the flamboyant manifestation of a forgotten flood. An artistic uchronia, which will also form the basis of a performance on June 19 at the Palais Garnier. This will take place within the framework of a collaboration between the Pavillon Neuflize OBC and the Ballet Academy of the Paris Opera. 

“Ayoung Kim has created a new and ambitious work, which is part of an ongoing series centred around the Opera Garnier monument. In this sound installation, produced in collaboration with a composer, only voices resound around Palais de Tokyo. This is a subtle allusion to the nave of the Opera Garnier, the vessel which accosted on a former swamp.” 1 

“(Ayoung Kim) peripheral view is directed towards the shadowy terrain of the “grands récits” , returning our dominant images of history step-by-step into the contingency from which they were originally unpacked.” 2 

Curator: Chloé Fricout 

An artist-in-residence at the Pavillon Neuflize OBC, Palais de Tokyo’s research lab, from November 2015 to June 2016, Ayoung Kim (born 1979 in Seoul) participated in the 56th International exhibition of the venice Biennale (2015) and the Serpentine Galleries’ public programme (London, 2016). She recently exhibited at Maraya Art Centre (Sharjah, 2015), SeMA (Seoul, 2014), the Leeum (Seoul, 2012), the Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin, 2011), 176/ Zabludowicz Collection (London, 2011) and the Museum of Arts and Design (New york, 2011). 

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