IN THIS VESSEL
WE SHALL BE KEPT
IN THIS VESSEL
WE SHALL BE KEPT
6-Channel Sound
Installation, 13min, 2016
Writer and director
AYOUNG KIM
Composer
HYUN-HWA CHO
Choirmaster
CHRISTINE MOREL
Singers
CHARLES BARBIER Tenor
VIOLAINE BARTHÉLEMY Alto
ALESSIA THAIS BERARDI
Soprano
RENAUD BRES Bass
ROMAIN DAYEZ Baritone
LUCIE LOUVRIER Mezzo
Sound mixing
DAEWOONG LIM
SISU PARK
AYOUNG KIM
6-channel surround mixing
ALOMÉ DAMIEN
from GRM (Groupe de
Recherches Musicales)
Commissioned by
PALAIS DE TOKYO, PARIS
Supported by
INA-GRM, FRANCE
Entering The Gym at the Collingwood Arts Precinct
you are faced with the map for In This Vessel We
Shall Be Kept.
This diagram presents Ayoung Kim’s rethinking
of historical events though one material:
petroleum. It connects the Middle East, the Palais
Garnier Opera in Paris and the capsizing of the
Korean ferry Sewol in 2014, with a surprising
butterfly effect.
Ayoung Kim found that the most important
religious books made reference to a great flood
and to ‘pitch’—an ancient material derived from
petroleum. Pitch was used by Noah to seal the
arc and at the Palais Garnier Opera in Paris,
where the artist was working in 2016 when this
work was commissioned. The opera resides on
an underground lake that was built to prevent
the building from flooding; is it the same lake
that inspired the legendary tale of The Phantom
of the Opera. The underground spaces also host
capstan structures for controlling stage sets
that were built by shipbuilders. The Opera was
completed in 1875 under Napoléon III, who was
also known as The Last Emperor.