Alessandra Galasso

This was Korean artist Kimsooja’s first solo exhibition in a European art institution. The exhibition included the video Sewing into Walking – Kyungju, 1994, dozens of bottari, bundles of used clothes wrapped in traditional Korean bedspreads, made for the newly married couples. To the artist, these are symbols of woman, sex, love, the body at rest, sleep, privacy, fertility, longevity, and health.
“We are wrapped in a cotton cloth at birth, we wear it until we die, and we are again wrapped in it for burial. Especially in Korea, we use cloths as a symbolic material on important occasions such as the coming of age ceremonies, weddings, funerals, and rites for ancestors. Therefore a cloth is thought to be more than a material, being identified with the body — that is, as a container for the spirit. When a person dies, his/her family burns the clothes and sheets he/she used. This may have the symbolic meaning of sending his/her body and spirit to the sky, the world of the sky, the world of the unknown.” (Kimsooja)