They document both the peculiar and the exceptional moments during the hours of travel between different time zones, the standardized meals, the views of cloudscapes, sunrises, and runways through the small round windows. In this way, Kim gives a unique and universally recognizable expression to states of transition and transit zones. The photographs are accompanied by collaborative short stories by Guilherme Vilhena Martins and the artist. In an exchange of journal entries, which are based on thoughts and conversations during the flights or personal travel routines and observations of other passengers, Vilhena Martins assembled the passages into a travelogue.
Drawing inspiration from airplane meals, a special limited edition of 50 publications is packaged in a design reminiscent of an aluminum lunch box, complete with a foldable metal spoon.
As the title Air Conditioned Hours suggests, both items explore themes of temporality and transience, highlighting the contrast between the temporary and the eternal. Inspired by the shape of a disposable spoon, the design features engraved motifs reminiscent of antique Art Nouveau utensils. This fusion reflects a delicate tension between constant movement and grounding, while also reflecting the compactness and adaptability essential to travel. Together, the publication and the special edition‘s design capture fleeting moments, the resilience of modern life, and the enduring human desire to hold onto fragments of meaning amidst perpetual change.
The artist book will be presented as part of an installation with works by Ju Young Kim. The presentation will be accompanied by a mixed reading performance, in which the texts from the publication will be read over loudspeakers as if on an airplane.
Ju Young Kim (*1991, Seoul, KR) explores transitional states and transit zones in her sculptures and installations by combining industrial transportation modules from airplanes and cars into symbolically encoded works. She blends these with stained glass, cast metal, ceramics and plastic, thus bringing together high-tech objects with hand crafts techniques. The works are characterized by surreal elements that have been extracted from their original context and open up a new perspective on the phenomena of the globalized world. In her conceptual explorations, she examines the relativity of space and time from the perspective of a transcontinental traveler. She combines her own experiences and feelings with objects and reflects on the extent to which belonging, origin and borders shape and form identity. Landscape motifs and traditional symbolism meet industrial products and transportation systems to paint a picture of an accelerated society in which different cultural and temporal components collide.
About the book: 160 pages, full color Edition Taube | ISBN 978-3-68917-008-0
Read more about Ju Young Kim’s work in the interview we did in July 2024: Click here
Address and contact:
max goelitz
Maximilianstrasse 35 (entrance Herzog-Rudolf-Straße)
80539 Munich
www.maxgoelitz.com
For further information please contact: Alexandra Chizhevskaya | max goelitz | alexandra@maxgoelitz.com | +49 (0) 89 89063944
Ju Young Kim studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich as a Meisterschülerin of Olaf Nicolai and was awarded the 2024 Debutant Grant for her diploma project AEROPLASTICS. Her works have recently been exhibited in group exhibitions at Printgallery in Tokyo, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen and Lothringer Halle 13 in Munich. A solo exhibition will open at the Kunsthalle Mannheim in summer 2025.
Co-conceptualized and designed by Maximilian Schachtner and published by Edition Taube, this book was produced with support from the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences and the Arts and the LFA Förderbank Bayern.
