Placemaking transcends historical markers but is rooted in everyday occurrences, the buildup of relationships, colloquial sayings, and the environment, shared sentiments, or bodily gestures. This exhibition examines scenes of Kentucky placemaking that hold resonance, reverence, and vibrancy through texture, aural and oral signifiers, myths, and gestures that are specific to the region. 

Thinking of movement, fluidity, ephemerality, and environmental activation, this exhibition consists of outdoor pop-up video exhibitions that take place throughout the state of Kentucky. The exhibition spans six venues across six cities in Kentucky, occurring once a month from June to November 2025. The traveling exhibition is composed of two videos and a soundscape that represent international and regional voices that interweave disruption and contemplation through placid yet subversive temporalities. 

Sora Kim’s Turtle Walk (2010) depicts two performers walking through a densely urban landscape. The performers are obscured by large white disks they carry on their backs as they navigate a maze-like pathway of brick and concrete. In contrast to the industrial landscape of Kim’s work, Katinka Bock’s Couler un tas de pierres (2007) is devoid of overt human presence. A small boat carrying a mysterious mound of rocks gently floats down a river surrounded by dense trees. Despite the differences in urban and rural settings, the works hold an inherent slowness due to their ambiguous aimlessness. The nomadic wandering is further layered with a conceptual score by Britni Bicknaver and Brianna Kelly’s River Gaze (2024), in which the sounds of rushing water, steamboats, barges, and canoes interweave to evoke a cinematic soundscape—a soundtrack originally made to be listened to along the Ohio River. 

This exhibition is malleable, and designed to activate sites specific to each venue. The presentation, atmosphere, and engagement changes as the three traveling artworks take different forms—projections on the foliage of trees to a performance along the river to a screening on an abandoned millhouse. The addition of local artist(s) per venue further expands the exhibition, highlighting the nuances of place and identity through each environmental activation.

– Sso-Rha Kang Curator, The Carnegie

KADIST is non-profit contemporary art organization that believes artists make an important contribution to a progressive society through their artwork, which often addresses key issues relevant to the present day. Dedicated to exhibiting the work of artists—from more than one hundred countries—represented in its collection, KADIST affirms contemporary art’s role within social discourse, and facilitates new connections across cultures.

Its local hubs in Paris and San Francisco organize exhibitions, physical and online programs, and host residencies. KADIST stays apprised of developments in contemporary art via a global advisor network, and develops collaborations internationally, including with leading museums, fostering vibrant conversations about contemporary art and society.