BIO
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Born in Seoul, South Korea
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[Eng]
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Yidan Kim uses olfactory materials and sensations to create either intangible or tangible sensory imagery. The artist focuses on the sense of smell, which has been undervalued in the hierarchy of senses, exploring humans as sensory beings. She aims to provoke the expansion of sensory perception and cognition by emphasizing the sense of smell. She delves into the boundaries between human and non-human beings, and endeavours to shift the human-centric perspective to that of non-human entities, thereby focusing on non-material objects that exist beyond the realm of human perception.


Yidan Kim completed an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2024. She also studied Hyang-do, a traditional Korean fragrance ceremony rooted in East Asian culture, and researched olfactory object-mediators worldwide, collecting diverse olfactory materials. Drawing on the craft of incense-making and the techniques of fragrance oil perfumery, she manifests olfactory imagery synesthetically through sculpture, installations, and performances.


The 2024 work Fluid presents a "sculpture in a gaseous state." It captures the transition of substance in an installation where solid incense burns, becoming gas that flows through pipes and eventually condenses into liquid. The work attempts to give form and body to the intangible and imperceptible nature of smell/fragrance. In the installation work Human Nosework Training(2020), she visualized various everyday smells in the form of ‘smell balls’, randomly installed in space, proposing that viewers experience and train themselves to perceive smells between fragrance and odor by staying still, lying on the floor, or crawling around. In collaboration with sound artist Haedong Lee, the performance Ecology of Death and Annihilation(2021) reinterpreted the origin of art as ritual and ceremony. It depicted a synesthetic landscape through a contemporary ceremony that reconstructed olfactory and auditory elements.



CV


Solo Exhibition
2020  Human Nosework Training ｜ Seoul Art Space Seogyo ｜ Seoul (KR)


Selected Group Exhibition 
2024  Hazy Horizons ｜ Noho gallery ｜ London (UK)
2024  My Room Is Another Fishbowl  ｜Westbournegrove Church  ｜ London (UK)
2024  Sixth Sense ｜ Standpoing gallery ｜ London (UK)
2024  Rites and Rituals ｜Safehouse ｜London (UK)
2023  Lawless Imagination  ｜ Rupturexibit  ｜London (UK)
2021  RE : Soil - Sand - Pebble ｜ 2021 Korean International Ceramic Biennale｜Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art  ｜ Icheon (KR)
2021  Creating Moving Nature Together ｜Suwon Museum of Art  ｜ Suwon (KR)
2021  Momentariness ｜117-8, Choryangsang-ro  ｜ Busan (KR)
2021  Properties of Night ｜ Yeon Nam-dong 245-33 ｜ Seoul (KR)
2020  The moment  Group 8491 ｜ Post Territory Ujeongguk ｜ Seoul (KR)


Selected Performance
2024  Contemperament Music Festival / Yidan Kim, Haedong Lee ｜Goldsmiths, University of London｜London (UK)
2024  Sound / Image Festival 2024 / Yidan Kim, Haedong Lee ｜Universtiy of Greenwich ｜London (UK)
2024  Experimance Festival 2024 / Yidan Kim, Haedong Lee ｜Saarbrücken (DE)
2024  Exist, as an Object / Yidan Kim, Haedong Lee ｜ Northside studio, dadada collective ｜London (UK)
2023  Ceremony For the Last Humanity / Yidan Kim, Haedong Lee  ｜ Hangar Space Gallery , RCA ｜ London (UK)
2023  Ceremony For the Last Humans / Yidan Kim, Haedong Lee ｜ Mirror, Mirror on the Wall ｜IKLECTIK ｜ London (UK)
2023  Line-Rhythm / Yidan Kim, Heejin Jang, Liyoun Kim ｜MINBOKJIN Museum of Art ｜Yangju (KR)
2022  Nowhere, haihm x OHHO with Yidan Kim｜OHHO ｜ Seoul (KR)
2022  Poetics of  the olfactory sense / Yidan Kim, Sono Kim｜PACK WEEK 2022 ｜  Platform L ｜ Seoul (KR)
2021  A ceremony for 2021｜WeSA Festival 2021 TOUCH ｜ L.A.D ｜ Seoul (KR)
2021  Ecology of Death and Annihilation : A Ceremoy for Things that Wither｜Oil Tank Cultural Park ｜Seoul (KR)
2020  The Moment ; rebuild / group 8491｜Post Territory Ujeongguk ｜Seoul (KR)
2019  共鳴(resonance)/ Acoustic Audio Visual Group 8491｜ Yangtze River International Culture Industries Expo ｜ Shanghai (CN)
2019  Scent & sound performance / Haedong Lee, Yidan Kim ｜ Peters Burg Art Space, Loophole  ｜Berlin (DE)
2019  Scent & sound performance / Haedong Lee, Yidan Kim  ｜ Màgia Roja HQ ｜Barcelona (ES)
2019  The Moment / Acoustic Audio Visual Group 8491｜JeongDong Theater ｜ Seoul (KR)
2019  The Moment / Acoustic Audio Visual Group 8491｜Soorim Art Center ｜Seoul (KR)
2019  The Moment / Acoustic Audio Visual Group 8491 ｜Shanghai International Paper Art Biennale ｜Shanghai (CN)
2019  PEACE & LOVE ｜T. T. A ｜ Seoul (KR)
2018  Incense ceremony ｜Yangminshan studio｜Taipei (TW)
2018  Dokkaebi Play / group HaeDongSeoungGuk ｜getto alive ｜ Seoul (KR)
2018  The Moment / Acoustic Audio Visual Group 8491 ｜Platform L ｜Seoul (KR)
2017  Dokkaebi Play / HaeDongSeoungGuk ｜studio LOG ｜Seoul (KR)


Project
2024  Everlasting Blink ｜multi-sensory installation ｜ Royal College of Art ｜ London (UK)
2019  L’air du temps - TOKKIKO SMELL TRIP (Sensory Meditation workshop)  20 times
2019  TOKKIKO CEREMONY 190728 ｜Studio Senggi  ｜Seoul (KR)
2019  TOKKIKO CEREMONY 190623 ｜ ZakEunMul ｜Seoul (KR)


Release
2021  ECSTASIS / Rope Incense Kit ｜Collaboration with AfterJe*koff Seoul
2018  DOKKAEBI PLAY KIT / project group HaeDongSeoungGuk
2017  KALI DANCE / IJM


Olfactory Directing  / Design
2023  Museum X ｜ Scent installation, directing ｜Sokcho (KR)
2023  Mouvement - Sculptural lines, Minbokjin｜ Scent installation ｜ MINBOKJIN Museum of Art｜Yangju (KR)
2021  dance performance / GUL, Hee-eun Jeong ｜Scent installation, directing ｜Seoul (KR)
2017  play / yeonhee702 ｜Yeonhee702 / Seoul (KR)
2017  play  / Studio Nanadashii ｜Theater Arko ｜Seoul (KR)


Workshop /  Teaching /  Lecture
2021  Creating Moving Nature Together｜Making the Nature's Scents Workshop ｜Suwon Museum of Art  ｜Suwon (KR)
2020  Sensory expansion  training with Jeong ga Ak Hoe｜VELOSO Hongdae ｜Seoul (KR)
2018  Traditional Kore an Incense class｜Namsangol Hanok Village ｜Seoul (KR)
2017  'Scent of Nepal' lecture (7th Oct 2017)｜Perfumery school SCENTORY ｜Seoul (KR)


Education
2024  Sculpture M.A.｜Royal College of Art (UK)
2016  Communication and Journalism B.A.｜ChungAng University (KR)


Grants / Awards
2024 Gilbert Bayes Award 2025

2024 Gilbert Bayes RCA Awards 2024

2023  Sumi Scholarship Foundation 
2021, 2020, 2019  Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture


Certificate / Residency
2019  Standpoint Gallery Residency ｜ London (UK)
2019  Tea Ceremony course ｜喫茶去 (kkikdageo) Tea Culture Institute  ｜Seoul (KR)
2019  'Incense Ceremony' course 13th｜Korean Traditional Incense Cultural Association MUN-HYANG (聞香) ｜Seoul (KR)
2017  PerfumeryⅡ ｜Perfumery School SCENTORY ｜Seoul (KR)
2016  PerfumeryⅠ ｜Perfumery School SCENTORY ｜Seoul (KR)


Others
2024~ Member(GBA) of the Royal Society of Sculptors
2019~ Member of Korean Traditional Incense Cultural Association MUN-HYANG (聞香)
2019~ Received personal guidance from Ven. Nueng Hye (Former chief monk to the spiritual leader of Haeinsa temple / CEO of Chiwun incense manufacturing company)                             2017   Studied traditional Nepali/Tibetan incense making at Kopan Nunnery ｜Kathmandu (NP)