CapitalPlus

Travelling and working in the Asia Pacific Region today is always a wonderful experience. There are surprises in all fields, especially in contemporary art. My meeting with Sora Kim, along with some of her colleagues such as Gimhongsok, was one such remarkable experience. I met Kim at the opening dinner of the first Taipei Biennial in 1998. She didn’t speak much and seemed a little shy, but what was unquestionably memorable was her work, which I then saw for the first time. Her piece was an Unlimited Concept Co. Cleaning Dept. project entitled Very Up & Very Down. The installation consisted of a pink truck equipped with a variety of cleaning instruments and, next to it, a file containing a series of documents recording cleaning activities within the city of Taipei. The project was neither visually spectacular nor ideologically sensational. It was simply a series of cleaning actions of different urban spaces, from the city hall to supermarkets, museums to restaurants…