2017,

SOMA Art Gallery

2017,

2014

SOMA 700

Monumentenstraße

24

Berlin

10965

somaartspace.com

Kahee Jeong, Unmyth, 2021, Foto: Nabi Nara

Kevin Groen, Boys don’t cry, 2020, Foto: Nabi Nara

Answering this question seems to be the most difficult and an endless process for me because I have to ruminate on the past decade or so in which I have gone through Berlin as a female artist, a Korean artist, the founder and chief of an Asian contemporary art platform, and a mother. Since the very beginning, I have been interested in seeking a kind of universal identity, spanning the various backgrounds of Berlin-based contemporary artists in order to examine the question of identity as it is often perceived from the outside: according to gender, nationality, and cultural milieu. So I have created a space where the dichotomous logics about those issues could be discussed, proceeding with many projects. Above all, I had dreamt of creating a self-supporting space, based on an independent profit model. Recognizing limitations in workforce, culture, and the market of the art scene, however, I have experienced some moments of great suffering. But what has enabled me to endure those moments of suffering was not money but people, so that I would answer sincerely that a project space no longer means a physical space for me. It is a non-physical space, comprising people like artists, users and agents, or sometimes a network.Wir denken, dass Kunst ein Bewusstsein und eine Identität schafft, aus denen überhaupt erst politisch gehandelt werden kann.The pandemic gave us a pause and became a forced hiatus. For us, it didn’t make sense to organize events or to move into the digital space during the last year. A willingness to think outside the box, to implement short-term funding, and to listen to the needs of the community. Not everyone requires long term investments; others would like to apply for EUR 500 to develop a project for next month. These quick, low-cost funding opportunities are not clearly available yet. When implementing initiatives, first think about the places and the people you are trying to serve. Requiring project spaces to have a program mapped out six months in advance, or ask for only German-language applications is not responding to the community.