Kimsooja's mirrored installation offers a new perspective on the Bourse de Commerce

South Korean artist Kimsooja invites us to reexamine the familiar interiors of Paris’s Bourse de Commerce this spring via her interactive installation, which covers the iconic Rotunda’s floor in mirrored tiles.

A carte blanche project, To Breathe – Constellation inverts the confines of the room, blurring the perception of height, depth and space in one go. Explains Kimsooja, ‘The mirror replaces the body, observing and reflective.’

The installation jumps off the architectural philosophy of Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who oversaw the renovation and transformation of the 18th-century grain exchange into a permanent art gallery to house François Pinault’s contemporary art collection. Ando’s architectural practice seeks to embody emptiness and infinity, changing our interaction with our surroundings. It’s this sense of awe and wonder that Kimsooja has tapped into, collapsing boundaries between floor and ceiling, sky and land.

To Breathe—Constellation is part of the exhibition Le monde come il va (The world as it is), an expansive showcase of the Pinault Collection’s most iconic contemporary artworks across the 33,000 sq ft museum. This includes 24 display cases in the Passage and the lower level of the museum, which Kimsooja has filled with video installations and works exploring ideas around borders, memory, movement, exile, and weaving.

‘To Breathe – Constellation’ and ‘Le monde come il va’ run until 2 September 2024