By Honorary Reporter Viviane Vaz from Belgium
Photos= Viviane Vaz

Kim Woo poses with her installation painting "In the KKOT-BAT: Memory with Grandma."

Korean artist Kim Woo's solo exhibition "Spontaneous Hesitation" was held from June 17 through July 15 at Solvay Library in Brussels, shortly after the Belgian government started to relax quarantine restrictions. Kim said that during the quarantine, she was inspired by flowers to come up with an exhibition showing six of her "Stone" series and nine of her "Spring" series to the Belgian public.

"Stone" asks questions about the origin of humanity that she had right after giving birth to her first child when she belonged to Rennes Beaux-Arts in France. "Spring" was done during the quarantine period in Belgium due to the pandemic. An original art concept Kim created in 2018, deongeori, which means "lump" in Korean, is part of this exhibition and shown as an installation work. Her works look like lumps, which makes them simple but unique.

"In the KKOT-BAT: Memory with Grandma" expresses the movements of a moment with maximized curves in her paintings. The word kkotbat means "flower garden" in Korean, and to Kim, this is both something Korean and personal. "When I was young, I was always afraid that my grandmother would die someday. So I told her that I'd bury her in the kkotbat when she died. I lived in an apartment at that time, so there was no flower garden at home, though I felt that I had a kkotbat close to my home," Kim said. The reason she mentioned kkotbat as Korean is because of its uniqueness that sets it apart from Western gardens. It does not consist of grass because of an old Korean perception that grass, not a garden, should cover a grave. "I don't know if I unconsciously thought that the grave and the kkotbat are related to each other somehow. I think of kkotbat as a place where I can visit whenever I want, which probably made me think that I should bury my grandma there. Furthermore, it's always spring when flowers bloom all the time, and thinking of it always makes me happy and calm," she added.

The colorful flowers might attract visitors' eyes but Kim's main artworks at the exhibition are her two "Narcissus" pieces. "I went out for a walk once during the quarantine and came across a narcissus. I found it amid colorful tulips around it, which made the white flower stand out. I was very touched and inspired by its beauty of simplicity," she said.

"It's my first solo exhibition in Belgium and I'm very happy. The place is magnificent and huge, yet elegant and historical. The atmosphere is antique, and I could transform the place into something completely different with my works. I had a lot of fun with that," the artist said. "The exhibition is highly dynamic because I wanted to let my confined feelings explode."

chaey0726@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.