Genesis Kai - The Tension That Holds

At the core of Genesis Kai’s practicelies Pothosophy, a conceptual framework developed by the artist to rethink desire as a structuring force of reality. Drawing from the ancient Greek notion of pothos and resonating with Neo-Confucian philosophy, Pothosophy understands desire as movement and relation, unfolding across multiple intensities within a shared field. This philosophical grounding in forms both the visual language and the temporal architecture of the exhibition.

The ground floor presents a series of uniqueprints on hanji, traditional Korean mulberry paper. Immersed within the landscapes built by the artist, figures gather, read, play, and wait with in red-saturated landscapes, held in moments of shared attention. At the center ofthe space, an installation of Korean antiquities from the Joseon dynasty, drawn from the artist’s grandfather’s collection, introduces a continuity with the artist’s heritage, one that can be traced back to the traditional objects that occupy some of the prints, assembled in the likes of Chaekgado, traditional paintings depicting Korean scholars’ objects and libraries.

Descending into the basement, the exhibition becomes immersive. Sixteen video works unfold across screens, accompanied by traditional Korean music and a central installation which echoes the flowing of water as a symbol of circularity and meditative expansion. The space invites viewers into duration, dispersing attention across multipletemporal streams and reflective surfaces.

The moving images are co-created through Genesis Kai’s dialogue with artificial intelligence (AI), which operates as an expanded perceptual field rather than a tool. This process mirrors Pothosophy’s understanding of desire as distributed across multiple frequencies, allowing continuity to take shape through relation, iteration, and sustained tension.

The Tension That Holds invites viewers to remain with complexity, to experience tension as a productive condition, and to recognize continuity as something cultivated through presence, patience, and care.

Excerpted from the official press release courtesy of ArtVerse.