Kidows Kim: High Gear

Through this excavation, Kidows Kim questions the relentless cycle of production, consumption, and reincarnation. Rather than reproducing these patterns, a figure seeks to subvert their mechanisms, disrupt their repetition, and break free from their hold.

Drawing inspiration from the structure of yonkoma manga, a type of four-panel comic often used in political journalism, this solo delves into four fundamental themes: 1起) birth, 2承) eating, 3轉) working, and 4結) death. It unfolds within a closed circuit where representations are continuously absorbed, (de)constructed, and (re)formed. In this process, meanings accumulate, collide, and blur the boundaries between subject, object, and abject.

In the interstices of this amalgamation of noise and gazes, a fragmented, ghostly body struggles to find its way. It witnesses the uncanny that takes root in the familiar and to the growing distance that, despite physical proximity, spreads across space.

High Gear thus becomes an excluded space, where the body exposes and decomposes itself in the pursuit of an elusive exterior.

Kidows Kim

“I was born in South Korea. After studying graphic design and mime, I continued my training at CNDC in Angers, then pursued a master's degree in exerce at ICI-CCN in Montpellier under the direction of Christian Rizzo. My creations form an intimate cosmogony in the shape of a Dictionary of Fantastic Creatures. I unveiled the first chapter, a strangely monstrous solo named FUNKENSTEIN (2021), as well as the second part, CUTTING MUSHROOMS (2023), which explores an unfinished micro-transformation. In parallel, I am developing a series of occasional and ephemeral performances around an obsession with mangas.

My work is imbued with "Monstrarcheology", a method that involves excavating an ambiguous organic form that wanders between the figurative and the abstract, based on intimate, social, and political experiences. Using this method, I explore the monstrosity that arises by deconstructing the dominant ideas of the collective unconscious through the distortion of the normativity of the human body, voice, and everyday objects. I try to extract the strangeness hidden in the prosaic.

During this uninterrupted exploration, the precarious appearance of connections and breaks constantly disseminates indeterminable choreographic materials. In doing so, the unfulfillment of an infinite transformation brings forth an impalpable physicality. I practice this excavation by questioning the hierarchies between different mediums (movements, clothing, sound, sculpture, writing...) and by examining the frictions between them. This tangled methodology depicts a performative epic poem composed of personal myths.“

www.kidowskim.com