Zzum – Universe Expansion
As architects, we always pretended that art and architecture, without being the same discipline, had so much overlap it would sometimes difficult to draw a clear line that separated it. What was missing was for us to explore that zone where you don’t know in which side you are standing.
In 2013, after experiencing a serious burnout from the construction of our first public building, the Chang Ucchin Museum in Yangju, we got several proposals for medium scale installations. It allowed us to commit to an architecture of a simpler, purer form, free from the weight that comes with making buildings. Although they have different context and subjects, they have a common conceptual direction.
Zzum – Universe Expansion was commissioned by ClayArch museum in GimHae, close to Busan. The big bang expansion model refers to a time before light or materials as we know them, a ripple in a wider landscape of unknown dimensions, the sudden expansion when our universe emerged. Our installation is a reflection on the edges of perception, the idea of finite infinite universe, a space that challenges our sense of limits while allowing free movement and exploration. The figure of ZimZum, the moment of creation of light remains valid, as first proposed by Barnett Newman in 1969.
As a public space, this installation propose to explore the maximum tension between a monumental sculpture, an event that modifies and challenge perception, and the making of a public space, beyond the common sense rules of functionality and comfort. We wanted to create a public space that would be as challenging as an Italian plaza, invaded by the baroque explosion of a marble fountain.
