Artspace boan presents a solo exhibition 《Berlin Blue》 by artist Sylbee Kim, on view through November 8, at Artsapce baon 2 and Boanbooks.

Berlin Blue (2025), the centerpiece of the exhibition, started with the concern about whether we could be friends, allies, or family, at least temporarily, without destroying each other in a world imbued with discrepancy and hate.

As no society or system can fully represent every component, the sense of non-belonging could indeed configure a broader terrain where different beings can meet. Berlin Blue simulates a time and space where each of us as a “minority” can intersect, overcoming a reality where nobody can, in fact, be absorbed into a “majority.”

∅-places, ∅-objects, and ∅-beings sovereignly occupy the hollow space for projected definitions that are by far detached from any authentic origin. These declare their own body and dimensions, standing on a ground for a possible sense of belonging as if it had already arrived.

Isu (it/its), the protagonist of the video, departs for spiral time travel to meet three lovers. Following the century-long journey of the pigment Prussian blue, individual lives intersect with various moments of militarist history. Isu returns to the present-future, and steps toward a lover in a yet-to-be-born future.

Berlin Blue questions how minorities, like anyone everywhere, could stand up as they are, liberated from cultural and political projections. In doing so, the work prepares an intersecting realm of “∅-beings,” who are double- and multiple-marginalized in societies turning ever hostile to differences.

Installed on the 2nd floor, Margins (2025) deconstructs into portable units and reassembles jangot, which was worn by Isu (it/its), the protagonist of Berlin Blue. The main video is simultaneously on view in the exhibition at Artspace Boan 2. Isu appears covering its face, but after the encounters with three lovers, it gets rid of the objects of imposed projections to proceed more lightweight.

The Bridge Shelves is a space mostly dedicated to the promotion of publications distributed by Boanbooks. Accompanying the exhibition publication of Berlin Blue, each different and flexible segment in Margins freely combine and occupy the geometric sections of the display shelves. As such, they bring marginalized beings to the foreground to be finally read as they are, breaking the state of being that was reduced to signs and tokens.

“Berlin Blue”
2025.10.14 - 2025.11.08
Tue-Sun 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Artspace Boan 2
33 Hyoja­ro, Jongno­gu, Seoul, Korea