Steppe Route: From Korea to Georgia

ჰერიუნ კიმი

The exhibition Steppe Route: From Korea to Georgia by artist Heryun Kim, presented in the spaces of the State Silk Museum, offers dynamic works that reflect on timeless ancient knowledge. The artist’s research on the prehistoric world and early civilizations unfolds through a creative approach across multiple media (inked painting canvas, textile objects) and transforms into a site-specific installation within the museum’s exhibition halls.

Historically, the “Steppe Route” is an older trade route than the Silk Road, functioning from as early as 2000 BCE, during the Bronze Age. Among nomadic tribes, it served as a network of exchange, connection, and communication, stretching across the Eurasian steppe zone. This ancient transcontinental route, which linked early civilizations, also significantly influenced the cultures that developed in the territory of present-day Georgia (e.g., the Trialeti culture).

How can such historical knowledge and theoretical assumptions evolve when approached from an artistic perspective? The exhibition by Heryun Kim—an artist active between two distinct cultural contexts, South Korea and Germany—offers a multilayered response to this question. The artist’s three-part installation is inspired by ancient forms of writing. Rather than presenting a chronological historical narrative, it proposes a visual journey through Sumerian (the oldest), Runic (Old Germanic), and Georgian scripts, based on cultural–archetypal artistic interpretation. The diffusion, distinctions, and semiotic-linguistic differences between these geographically distant cultures become an emotional journey from one space to another.

Alongside this installation, the exhibition also presents works from the artist’s second long-term series, “Mother Mobile”, in which traditional Korean costumes (Hanbok) are transformed into universal forms. Through textile objects, the artist articulates the eternal flow of life, the profound trace of the feminine, and the evolving role of women. The three-dimensional sculptural nature of Kim’s textile works disregards the primary function of clothing—to cover the body. These objects instead generate an autonomous, mobile dynamic. Their sense of movement and monumentality offers a spiritual dimension to the viewer, evoking the metaphorical potential of fabric.

Through such universal coded forms, Heryun Kim—via her conceptual vision—invites us to reflect on the shared mystery of the world, while also reawakening the long-forgotten voices of the steppe that stretch from Korea to Georgia.

Detailed information about artist please see her webpage