Parallel Swimmer

Paralel Swimmer, 2013
steel, color (stove enameled), 141 x 144 cm x 209 cm
courtesy Kim Kim Gallery, Seoul

shown in:
“Sex with Space”, Kim Kim Gallery @ Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, South Korea (2013, solo show)

see also:
Swimmer (art public), 2013
Two Boys, 1996/1998/2007


 

Excerpt from an Interview with Ji Yoon Yang (Director of Corner Art Space, Seoul) and Gregory Maass (Director of Kim Kim Gallery), March 2013, Seoul

Robert believes in modernity or better super-modernity. For him, one goal in life is to become supermodern. And not art-historically speaking, but spoken as an artist, which actually is the same, but not for Robert. Super-modernity for him implies… . When Robert says super-modernity, he wants to say that he believes in science. He sees it as a belief system, but not in a spiritual way. He believes in trans-substantiation through science, meaning that science is able to change one thing into another. People can change the structure of matter itself. What he wants to express through super-modernity is that you can change yourself, and that very ground-breakingly. So thatʼs his hope. Supermodernity for him is the hope of himself changing into something…
JY:…completely different?
GM: There you have to know Robert, there is no limit when he says this. To change into something which is better than I quote: ”better than the best angel two thousand years ago”.
Thatʼs the relation to the piece we showed in Daegu. The swimmer. Thatʼs the representation of the model for something you could change into it. Itʼs something you could become, if you trans-substantiate into something better than yourself, something super-human, into an angel. In this case an angel with 4 heads, 8 arms, and 8 legs, which is floating on his back on water. JY: I still donʼt understand how this relates…?
GM: Itʼs about evolving. You are able to evolve. Human beings can evolve into supermodern beings.
JY: This tongue in the beach can also be the transformation of the beach itself?
GM: Yes. Swimming is for Robert an expression of high-leisure. The most relaxing moment you can have with your own body is to float in water. You lose the feeling of the body, or at least some of its weight. You just float. Itʼs about bliss.

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