MADRID.- The Parque del Retiro has a small crystal palace where some of the most innovative artistical proposals have been shown. This is the case with an installation by Korean artist Kimsooja, born in 1957, titled Breathe: Woman Mirror.

Kimsooja has prepared this installation especially for the Crystal Palace. The floor has been covered with mirrors, translucid film covers the walls and the ceiling has crystal. The spectator is introduced in this world as one more element of the work of art which pretends to reflect on the relationship between the individual and his surroundings. Through sound, Kimsooja pretends to transmit a wide variety of sensations; pleasure, fun, anxiety and vertigo.

One work of art featuring the sound of the artist breathing is a recording from the Weaving Factory performance. The initial slow rhythm of the inhaling and exhaling transforms into a frenetic rhythm that provokes strong sensations. Following this, the artist uses minimalist melodies made by a wind instrument.

The mirror converts into the vehicle that makes it possible to look at one´s self as you see others, like an image whose bearing points makes us relate in a concrete manner with each person.

Once one enters the palace, the visitor can feel the vertigo that the reflection produces, a difficult feeling to forget. The perception is enriched when one visits during a sunny day as the light on the film projects a rainbow.

Kimsooja was born in Taegu, Korea. She lives in New York yet maintaining a regular rapport with her homeland. She participated in the Biennale of Venice in 1999 and 2005, and had a solo show at the Pac and the Raffaella Cortese Gallery in Milan in 2004. The installation in Madrid is similar to the one shown in her Venetian project, light and color create a purified abstraction, starting with “Invisible Mirror” and “Invisible Needle” which are joined into the single video installation “To breathe - Respirare”. In the first piece the spectrum of colors move slowly and the video screening functions as a mirror in which the surrounding space is reflected; in the second piece the speed of the sequence increases until it reaches a frenzied pulsation, like the prick of a needle.

The video work itself is silent, however, it is accompanied by the sound piece “The Weaving Factory 5.1”, (2004), made up of the sounds of the artist’s breathing which rise in a rhythmic crescendo, creating the perception of a space-time that merges with the theatre itself.

Her most recent works include “Bottari”, a collection of nuptial bedcovers, tied in bundles and representing existential sculptures in which the daily life of women and the nostalgia of exile is portrayed. Needle and fabric are the metaphoric elements which also appeared in the artist’s videos, such as “Needle Woman” (1999-2001) which was presented at the Biennale of Venice. Kimsooja has had solo exhibitions in important museums such as the Magasin in Grenoble, the PS1.MoMA in New York, the Kunsthalle in Bern, the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, the Kunsthalle in Vienna, the National Gallery of Warsaw, the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Lion, the Honolulu City Hall in Hawaii, the Musuem Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf, and her performance “59th Munuite” was performed in Times Square in New York. In April she will be exhibiting at the Palacio de Crystal in Madrid with a work involving light and sound. She has participated in international exhibitions of such prestige as the Biennale of Venice, of Kwangiu, of San Paolo, of Lion, of Sydney, of Valencia, in Manifesta, at the itinerant exhibition “Cities on the Move” and in numerous collective shows in the some of the most renowned museums in the world.