Pepper Art Projects is a Budapest based non-profit organization with an overall aim to support emerging artists by finding opportunities and making valuable contacts outside of the commercial gallery scene. Now the team is working on a retrospective exhibition to commemorate the life and art of Kim Corbisier who died in 2012 at a very young age.
Observation, 2009 – private collection
Barbara Dudás: What should we know about the artist, why did you think it is important to organize an exhibition in her memory?
Pepper Art Projects: Kim’s talent was discovered during her studies at the University of Fine Arts in Budapest, where she won the creative scholarship called Fundamenta-Amadeus. After graduation in 2010, she participated in KOGART’s exhibition called‘Fresh’ and also received a special award. Her biggest success was a 2nd place inSTRABAG’s competition. According to her master’s opinion, she was an exceptional talent who managed to create a significant oeuvre in just a few years. The aim of our memorial Exhibition is to present this oeuvre in the most complete form. In order to do this, we would like to show some masterpieces from private collections which were never seen by the audience before. Furthermore we collected some archive videos showing Kim or where she is the main character.
BD: She had a rather rugged destiny, lost her parents (a Korean mother and a Belgian father) very early and ended up in Budapest with a Hungarian stepmother. Had eating disorder, drug problems and tempestuous relationships – these on the whole led to her unfortunate suicide. How well should we know these details, the personal background to understand her art?
PAP: Kim had an extraordinary personality which triggered extreme reactions in people. There is no doubt about that her personal tragedy was a strong driving force in her life but I think that her death was rather a tragic drug related accident than a suicide. In her art, she usually used her life’s events and their places as a theme. In the rare occasions when her tragedy appeared in her works, it was processed objectively, so I don’t think it is vital to get too much into the details about her tragedy to get a good understanding of her art.
La marché, 2009 – private collection
BD: Why did you choose Dunaújváros as a location? What is her relation to the city?
PAP: In Kim’s childhood she and her stepmother moved to a small village called Nagyvenyim which is right next to Dunaújváros. She went to primary school here but her secondary school was back in Dunaújváros, so we thought this city would be an authentic choice.
BP: What is the meaning of the swallow nest metaphor in the title of the exhibition?
PAP: On one hand, the nest refers to a home which was an eternal desire for her throughout her whole adult life but never fulfilled. On the other hand, there is a video of her, where she makes a nice simile related to swallows.
BD: What is the Pepper Art Project’s role in the organization process? Are you planning to edit a catalogue/monography as well?
PAP: First Nagyvenyim’s leaders asked us to organize a memorial exhibition. During the work we made lots of interviews with friends and collectors, and started to regard this exhibition more and more important. According to our plans a catalogue will accompany the exhibition and the work will be continued further on.
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Nest – in memoriam Kim Corbisier
Intercisa Museum, Dunaújváros
25.09.2014 – 22.10.2014
The opening will take place on 25 September at 7pm.
