Tableau Vivant
Jae Min Kim

On August 31st we presented the multimedia project developed by artist-in-residency Jae Min Kim (South Korea). Tableau-Vivant is a project series that Kim has been working on during recent years, and for his residency at ´ace he worked on Tableau-Vivant: Severance. Presented at the Polígota Room, this piece consists of two large photographs of the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, one overlooking the Casa Rosada and the other towards the Pirámide de Mayo (May Pyramid). The particular thing is that both present this view from behind the bars which had been installed in the Plaza in order to “protect” the monuments from social demonstrations in recent years.

Over these photographs, Kim has made a mapping projection, showing people walking through the space, acrobats on bars, giant hands with threatening and hypnotising gestures. Thus, by joining and superimposing these two means and bringing different time frames, the artist suggests different stories and scenes in this environment that is strongly symbolic for the Argentinean history. In the words of Kim “Through mapping, images take on new life.”

For this project, Kim conducted a thorough research before and during the residency. The Plaza de Mayo is a point of interest for the artist as it is contrasting with the situation in his own country, if we think of the fact that due to the war, Sout Korea has been rebuilt again, somehow erasing the marks of history and memory.