'Bottari artist' Kimsooja receives French Order of Arts and Letters

Contemporary artist Kimsooja received the French Order of Arts and Letters, recognized for her contributions to art using traditional textiles and installations.

Contemporary artist Kimsooja speaks during a ceremony for receiving the French Order of Arts and Letters at the rank of Officier at the French Embassy in Seoul on July 9. [KIMSOOJA STUDIO]

Contemporary artist Kimsooja received the French Order of Arts and Letters at the rank of officier on Wednesday at the French Embassy in Seoul.

Established in 1957 by the French Ministry of Culture, the Order of Arts and Letters is awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions to the arts or literature.

The order has three ranks: chevalier, officier and commandeur, with commandeur being the highest. This is Kimsooja’s second decoration; she was previously awarded the rank of chevalier in 2017.

Born in Daegu in 1957, Kimsooja is known as the bottari artist in Korea — a nickname derived from her unique implementation of Korea's traditional cloth bundles used for wrapping and transporting belongings, which she reinterprets as symbolic carriers of memory, identity and migration in her conceptual and performance-based art.

She studied painting at Hongik University. She began as a painter but gained recognition in the early 1990s for her installation works using fabrics such as bojagi (traditional wrapping cloth), bed covers and old clothes collected from the streets. She stitches these materials together and wraps objects in them, transforming everyday textiles into sculptural art.

Since participating in the Venice Biennale in 1993, Kimsooja has showcased her work at leading cultural institutions including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Documenta in Kassel, the Lyon Biennale and the Guggenheim Museum.

In France, she held a solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, completed a permanent stained-glass installation at Metz Cathedral and carried out an urban project in Poitiers, among other notable contributions.

Contemporary artist Kimsooja receives the French Order of Arts and Letters at the rank of Officier during a ceremony at the French Embassy in Seoul on July 9. [KIMSOOJA STUDIO]

Most prominently, from March 20 to Sept. 2 of last year, she became the first Korean artist to be granted carte blanche at the Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection in Paris. The carte blanche designation allows an artist full creative control of an exhibition.

For the show, Kimsooja installed 418 mirrors on the floor of the museum’s iconic rotunda for the work “To Breathe,” and displayed other pieces such as “A Needle Woman” and “Thread Routes” in the museum’s glass cases and basement.

“My relationship with France began in 1984, when I received a government scholarship to study lithography for six months at the École des Beaux-Arts,” Kimsooja said during the ceremony. “Thanks to the sustained interest and generous support of the French government and both public and private art institutions, I have been able to continue my work. I offer my sincere gratitude.”

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff. BY LEE EUN-JU [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]