HAN SOL KIM - Putzkunst

Putzkunst, mixed media (Multi-channel video, photography, drawing), 2026

Hansol Kim, who works at a cinema to make a living, frequently witnesses numerous female cleaning workers arriving early in the morning before the cinema opens and cleaning the entire venue. By around 10 a.m., when the artist begins their shift, they have already finished their work and disappeared. Employees and visitors who arrive afterward inhabit the space without being aware of either their presence or their labor.

Their invisible work brought to mind the unrecognized women and their labor within the artist’s social and personal surroundings. Through thirteen video works, portrait photographs, and oil paintings, the project makes visible the otherwise unseen act of cleaning labor.

The work involves thirteen participants from the artist’s circle, including family members and friends in Korea with whom a strong rapport had been established, German exchange students, German colleagues, and migrants. Each participant invited the artist into a space they clean on a daily basis and, using the cleaning tools they normally use there, performed a process of cleaning-painting.

Within the most intimate space that represents an individual, they repeat an action that has become ingrained in their bodies through countless repetitions over many years. The tools and the space remain the same, yet the floor no longer becomes clean. The act of “erasing” leaves behind color and form. An action that simultaneously erases and has itself been erased becomes a record.