IKOB presents new works by Jungwoon Kim, created during her three-month residency (September–November 2025) in Eupen. The IKOB artist residency took place for the second time in 2025 and is a collaboration with Borderland Residencies, a joint initiative of residencies in the Meuse-Rhine cross-border region. The 2025 residency took place under the theme “Material Witness,” placing materiality and forms of witnessing at its center.

Jungwoon Kim is interested in objects and materials in transitional states: between growth and decay, natural and synthetic, living and perishable. During her stay, the artist used a space in the Eupen Plaza as her studio — a largely vacant shopping mall in the city center. Her workspace expanded into the streets and parks of Eupen, where she collected plant remnants and found objects that became the subjects of sculptural experimentation in the studio.

The works presented here reflect the artist’s impressions of her immediate surroundings and speak to the vulnerability and transience of nature. Kim used resin and cement to create casts of oak and maple leaves and star-shaped waffles. Fragile objects are thus captured through material transformation in a single moment, preserving every fold and fracture. The forms repeat — and yet each cast is unique. Arranged in different constellations, the objects cast new light on one another and become markers — or witnesses — of time, landscape, and movement.

Jungwoon Kim (1981, Seoul, South Korea) lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. She studied Fine Arts at Hongik University in Seoul and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Professors Rita McBride and Martin Gostner. Since graduating in 2014, Kim has participated in a variety of projects. She has been awarded numerous scholarships and participated in several artist residencies, which have taken her to cities such as Chongqing, Detroit, and Bucharest. Kim is also a member of the artist collective Mother of Pearl. Her recent exhibitions and projects include Fishing in Green, Living in Yellow at The Pool, Düsseldorf (2025); Und wir fangen gerade erst an at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2025); Worlds of Structure at Atelierhaus Aachen e.V., Aachen (2024); Waiting in Loop at Gallery Cubeplus, Kiel (2023); 20 Jahre dHCS-Stipendium at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen Düsseldorf (2023); Out to Lunch part 1 at Bloom in Düsseldorf (2023); Out to Lunch part 2 at 3:e Våningen, Gothenburg, Sweden (2023); Die Grosse at Kunstpalast Düsseldorf (2023); yesterday, today, tomorrow at Zero Foundation, Düsseldorf (2022); and 14. Salon der Künstlerinnen at Museum Kurhaus Kleve (2022).

Borderland Residencies is a Euregional network of residencies at art institutions. It is a joint initiative of artist residencies in the border area of the Rhine-Meuse. The Borderland programme supports the members’ activities by organising multi-day field trips for artists from all the participating residencies, through meetings with curators and institutions from the region and with a public programme including lectures, presentations and workshops. The programme offers participating artists the opportunity to forge contacts on both sides of the border, with both fellow artists and institutions. The field trips also focus on broader themes in the region, such as energy production, agricultural transition and the aging population.

Supported by the European Union and the Small Project Fund ‘People to People’ Interreg Maas-Rhine (NL-BE-DE), as well as the Regional Culture Programme NRW (RKP).