Sungeun Kim is a filmmaker, researcher and collaborator based in Jeju Island, S.Korea. She/They are also called Grace.
My work explores how memory is communicated and felt through cinema, focusing on its fragile, selective, and often fractured nature.
I create films that examine the ruptures and resonances of the past—and the possibilities of memory yet to come—drawing from both human and more-than-human relationships. Through fabulation, potential history, and prophecy, I approach memory as a multi-temporal phenomenon: one that not only recalls what has been submerged or forgotten, but also imagines what is still emerging or unspeakable.
By experimenting with poetic structures and sensory traces, I seek to make these layered temporalities perceptible. In doing so, I aim to expand the affective and performative possibilities of cinema—as a medium of listening, subtle resistance, and relation.
김성은. 제주도 기반의 영화감독, 연구자이자 협력자이다. 그레이스라는 이름도 쓴다.
기억이 어떻게 영화 안에서 감각되고 전달되는지를 탐구한다.
기억의 선택적이고 불완전하며 때로는 균열된 속성에 주목하면서, 단절과 잔향, 그리고 아직 도래하지 않은 기억의 가능성을 들여다본다. 그 가능성은 인간과 비인간 존재 모두를 포괄한다. 우화, 잠재적 역사와 예언을 바탕으로 기억을 다층적이고 비선형적인 현상으로 접근한다. 잊히거나 침잠한 것을 떠올리는 동시에, 아직 출현하지 않았고 말해지지 않은 세계를 상상한다.
시적인 구조와 감각적 흔적들을 실험하며, 서로 다른 시간들이 스며드는 지점을 드러내고자 한다. 영화를 ‘듣기’ 위한 매체로, 섬세한 저항과 관계 맺기의 감각적·수행적 가능성을 품고, 확장해 나가려한다.
Meisterschüler in Media Arts, Universität der Künste Berlin
BFA in Studio Art, New York University, New York City
Archives
Map without Island, 91 min, 2021
The Memory of the 25th Hour, 78min, 2017
Short
Some Queer Bo-ki, 10min, 2020
The Will, 20min, 2018
Compilation
Spring Wind Project - We are here, 114min, 2022
Spring Wind Project 2 : Meet comrades again, 87min, 2024
MUBI
KMDb
indie ground
Selected Exhibitions & Screeningss
Unmute Water: A Walk in Oscillation, Sanjicheon Gallery, Jeju, Korea, 2024
Unmute Water: The Sound of Muted Water, Gamjeo Gallery, Seogwipo, Korea, 2023
Busan MoCA Cinemedia Climate of Cinema: Isle, the Planet and Postcontact Zone, 2023
Korean Film Archive Cinemateque (KOFA) Independent Film Showcase, 2022
feels good to know you exist, Datsuijo, Tokyo, 2022
Solo Exhibition: From Afar Valley Deepens, Space Bisugi, Seogwipo, Jeju Island, 2021
The Line Stretched Toward You, Post Territory Ujeongguk, Seoul, 2021
Art Alumni Show, NYU Department of Art and Art Professions, New York, 2018
Illuminating Shade for Big Window, Jenny Cho Solo exhibition at Sindowh Culture Space, Seoul, Korea, 2017
Mitte Media Arts Festival, Fata Morgana, Berlin, Germany, 2017
Interrupted Survey : Fractured Modern Mythologies (part of “Refrain” by Angela Melitopolous), ACC, Gwangju, Korea, 2016
Jajaja Nenene, Fata Morgana, Berlin, Germany, 2016
Observation 6-Freie Universität Visual and Media Anthropology G6 Exhibition, Keller, Berlin, 2014
Gangjeong, Breath, Suwon City Museum, Suwon, Korea, 2014
Thinking Media III, Choong-mu Art Hall gallery, Seoul, Korea, 2013
The Rencontres Internationales, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, 2013
Screening Week, Cruise & Callas gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2013
More or Less, WCW gallery, Hamburg, Germany, 2013
Limited Space: Sarajevo / Berlin, designtransfer, Universität der Künste Berlin, Germany, 2012
Between Walls and Windows Architecture and Ideology at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, 2012
NORMALLY when the birds sing HE WAKES UP, live AV performance at Expanded Music Festival, Hans Eisler hochschule für Musik, Berlin, Germany, 2011
Esrever, live AV performance at Agora Collective, Berlin, Germany, 2011
Incite, 21st International Video festival Bochum, Bochum, Germany, 2011
Interferenzialistische Konferenz, live AV performance, Altes Finanzamt, Berlin, Germany, 2011
Klein Kunst, Platoon Kunsthalle, Seoul, Korea, 2011
Shor-Term Deviation, efa Project Space, NYC, USA,2010
Korea Experimental Arts Festival, Seoul, Korea, 2010
BITT Festival, Atlang Gallery, Seoul, Korea, 2010
Außenwelt der Innenwelt der Außenwelt, Shanglhangle gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2010
NYU Studio Art Graduation Group Exhibition, The commons at NYU, NYC, USA
I made your mother period, I made her period period, Rosenburg gallery, NYC, USA, 2008
Klein Geld, NYU Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2007
Selected Conferences & Forum
Edges of Empire/Pacific Rim, ASAP: The Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present, UCLA, USA, 2022
Antimilitarism in the Pacific Islands, Asian American & Pacific Islander Studies, UC San Diego, USA, 2021
Radical Film Network Meeting, silent green Berlin, Germany 2019
German Anthropological Association Conference at Freie Universität, Berlin, 2017
The Social:the 4th International Association for Visual Culture Biennial Conference at Boston University, Boston, 2016
Anthropologies Numériques, Le Cube, Paris, France, 2016
Selected Performances
Today is 11th June 1993 (dir. Clarissa Thieme), 2018
A Game of Fives (dir. Enrico Stolzberg) at 13. Münchener Biennale, International Festival for New Music Theater, Munich, Germany, 2012
A Game of Fives at UNIT.T-Theater, Universität der Künste Berlin, Germany, 2012
Expanded Music Festival, Hans Eisler hochschule für Musik, Berlin, Germany, 2011
Esrever, Agora Collective, Berlin, Germany, 2011
Incite, 21st International Video festival Bochum, Bochum, Germany, 2011
Interferenzialistische Konferenz, live AV performance, Altes Finanzamt, Berlin, Germany, 2011
Books
Lee Youjin, Choi Yoomi, Cho Hyesoo, Jaka Sumitomo, Fumihiko, Kim Sungeun (Grace), Saeng Saeng and Park Eunae. Outward: Rirkrit Tiravanija and the Aesthetics of Noji, Chroma Editions, 2025.
Anpak, Black Panther, Kim, Han Jino, Heeum, Jeon Solbi, Kim Sungeun, Kim Youngok, and Noh Soontaek. Collaborators Inside the Mouth. Total Museum Press, 2024.
Kim, Sungeun. “Sensory Trajectories Toward The Map Without Islands.” 2022 Independent Film Showcase, Korean Independent Film Association, January 2023, pp. 254–274, 2023