Sung Hwan Kim gives a free, public lecture as part of the Spring 2018 IDS Lecture Series at The Cooper Union, organized by Leslie Hewitt and Omar Berrada. An experimenter with language and an erudite author of stories with a political charge and a touch of fantasy, Sung Hwan Kim arrived at visual art after training in architecture and mathematics. His works combine elements of biography and science-fiction influences, folk tales and collective memories, creating metaphors for historical and social issues. The work that was on display for the 2017 Venice Biennale will be the subject of Kim's lecture. The work, Love before Bond, is a fairy tale about people who have never met; it refers to the potential of a story to conceal or reveal the connections between individual and historical events. The lecture is a discussion of the film components of the work as well as a screening.

Sung Hwan Kim (1975, South Korea) has most recently exhibited his work at daad galerie, Berlin (2018), the 57th Venice Biennale Arte (2017), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea (2017) and Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, Berwick, UK (2017). With David Michael DiGregorio he inaugurated Asian Arts Theater, Gwangju, with the operatic theater piece, 피나는 노력으로 한 [A Woman Whose Head Came Out Before Her Name] (2015) and created two radio plays, commissioned by Bayerischer Rundfunk: one from in the room (2010, for which they won the Karl-Sczuka-Förderpreis), and Howl Bowel Owl (2013). Solo exhibitions include Sung Hwan Kim, CCA Kitakyushu (2016); Life of Always a Mirror, Artsonje Center, Seoul (2014); Sung Hwan Kim, The Tanks at Tate Modern, London (2012); Line Wall, Kunsthalle Basel (2011) and Sung Hwan Kim, From the Commanding Heights..., Queens Museum, New York (2011). His works were shown in international biennales and film festivals, such as the Gwangju Biennale, Performa, Manifesta, Berlin Biennale, Rotterdam International Film Festival and Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin. He was a fellow at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (2004/2005) and a recipient of Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD (2015).

The IDS Public Lecture Series is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding and support from the Robert Lehman Foundation for the series. The IDS Public Lecture Series is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.