The Other Skin was first performed in 2022 at the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany, and lasted six hours. It was part of the public program of the DAVRA collective for documenta fifteen.

The primary medium used in the performance was plasticine - a material typically associated with children. Its capacity for continuous transformation mirrors the Chilltans, forty shapeshifting spirits from Central Asia.

 

Like many children, I once told my parents about creatures inhabiting our house - beings they could not see. I find myself returning to the moment when I stopped perceiving them.

 

In front of me stood forty glass jars. Taking plasticine from my own body, I sculpted elusive creatures and sealed them inside. This act raised questions about their current whereabouts, their possible danger, or their imprisonment.

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The documentation was filmed when the performance was restaged for the exhibition You Are Here at Fondazione Elpis in Milan, Italy. For this iteration, sound was added, referencing my mixed identity through the voices of my friends and artists - Korean woman (Hee Seo) and Ukrainian woman (Sofia Holubeva). Hearing these two languages spoken simultaneously felt like looking into a mirror for the first time, as I speak neither of them despite being half Korean and half Ukrainian.

 

The sound of a sweeping broom, performed by my father (Anatoliy Kim), was recorded in Uzbekistan, where I was born. Sweeping, a gesture strongly associated with Uzbek cleaning traditions, conveys the meditative nature of the performance and intensifies it, expressing my belonging to yet another cultural context.

 

In the background, a Chilltan made of beeswax is visible - another material that, alongside plasticine, is central to my artistic practice.