Soonja Han

Soonja Han was born in Seoul (South Korea) in 1952. She has lived and worked in Paris since 1983. When she arrived in France, Soonja Han attempted to free herself of her “baggage”. Having made a clean sweep of all sources of influence, both Asian and western, she devoted herself wholly to her research, an introspective process in which spontaneity and automatism predominate. The circle appeared at the centre of this research. This usually stands out against an immaculate white background. At the same time, it is the centre and starting point of an endless movement. For Soonja Han, this form is inseparable from the colour that inhabits it. Clean, very lively colours make the whole form resonate. These circles sometimes intersect one another while retaining their total autonomy, following the example of what was stated by Gerhard Richter: “I noticed that one could put colours side by side. This provides a nicely anarchic effect”. Both in her installations and in her paintings, the artist opts for multiplication: of size, of colour, and with all the complexity that these different combinations underlie. Soonja Han absorbs herself with the meditative possibilities of this type of work: thought about the colour is supplemented by a measured movement. During this, her first exhibition at a French institution, a video produced using digital animation and projected onto two painted, circular screens will also be shown. In this film, coloured discs move around on the same screen or from one screen to the other. For Soonja Han “These animations are living, moving drawings”. These shapes intersect one another and join for a moment, so creating new ones from it that one can sometimes identify. This is what is called the figurative capacity of the abstract idea.