Yae In Kim, Artist-in-Factory 2024/2025 at Hüttinger, was showing her work during Die Blaue Nacht | The Blue Night
Concept art by Yae In Kim for Hüttinger's Artist in Factory Programme 2024/25 for Die Blaue Nacht | The Blue Night
How “The Conversation of the Hidden Things” addresses cultural racism
In South Korea, Yae In’s home country, she had never encountered racism. There, she was not perceived as “Asian” but simply as belonging. However, when she moved to Germany in 2016 to initially study in Berlin, this changed quickly: “Suddenly I was the foreigner, the Asian—simply the other.” It is precisely this experience of estrangement that forms one of the central themes of her artwork "The Conversation of the Hidden Things". Yae In speaks about things that move her and occupy her in her everyday life.
Born in Seoul in 1993, the South Korean artist now lives in Nuremberg and works as a freelance artist. In 2025, she completed her studies in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg in the class of Prof. Marko Lehanka.
Yae In Kim develops her work in the workshop hall of Hüttinger
As the starting point for her artwork, she uses a self-illustrated comic, which she is now bringing to life. “In Korea there is a saying that you have to remain flexible, that you have to bend yourself so that others do not break you—or so that you do not break in the literal sense. As a child, I always found this idea terrifying.”
In her comic "Cockroaches", she sketches various encounters that ultimately lead to the initially upright protagonist bending in order to conform to externally imposed expectations. Even nature becomes a construct: it is subject to manipulation—a plant grows in the direction that is desired, not in the one determined by nature. Shaped and bent to fit the expectations of others.
Yae In Kim producing her work at Hüttinger. A palm tree, its trunk replaced by a plastic tube, on paletts laid on the ground. The workshop can be seen in the background.
The concept was realised in the premises of Hüttinger Interactive Exhibitions in Schwaig. The artist had already been working for some time on the realisation of her staging: “Of course, this is not my own studio, so I needed a little time to adjust at the beginning, but the collaboration is very good. Working out my ideas with the support of specialised professionals is, of course, a major advantage and would not have been easily possible otherwise. Access to additional technical possibilities in order to realise my artwork according to my vision is also fantastic.”
The Artist in Factory-Programme
A key objective of Die Blaue Nacht | The Blue Night is the collaboration with and support of the local arts and culture scene.
The Artist in Factory programme by Hüttinger, launched in 2018 together with the Projektbüro Kultur of the City of Nuremberg and the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg, is based on the guiding idea that the reciprocal interplay between aesthetics in the natural sciences and cognition in art brings together two disciplines that initially appear incompatible in a completely unconditional way.
It offers students and graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg, with the support of Hüttinger, the opportunity to bring their visions to life. The renaming of the programme from “Artist-in-Residence” to “Artist-in-Factory” is intended to emphasise its distinctive hands-on character.
The works of the respective artists are presented during Die Blaue Nacht | The Blue Night—in 2025 at the former Kaufhof site.
Artist-in-Residence 2019, 2022 and 2023
For the fourth time, Hüttinger is awarding a scholarship at its company premises. In 2019, Yanran Cao realised her multimedia installation "The Moonlight is beautiful tonight" at Herrenschießhaus. In 2022, Matthias Deeg developed his work "I see another world but I can’t stop", which was exhibited for one week at the Museum for Communication. In 2023, Theresa Hartmann presented her installation "our wet matters" in the courtyard of the City of Nuremberg’s Building Authority.
Artist-in-Residents 2019, 2022 und 2023
Bereits zum vierten Mal lobt die Firma Hüttinger ein Stipendium auf ihrem Firmengelände aus. 2019 visualisierte Yanran Cao ihr Multimedia-Installation "The Moonlight is beautiful tonight" im Herrenschießhaus. Im Jahre 2022 realisierte Matthias Deeg sein Werk "I see another world but I can´t stop" und stellte es eine Woche im Museum für Kommunikation aus. 2023 zeigte Theresa Hartmann ihre Installation "our wet matters" Innenhof des Hochbauamtes der Stadt Nürnberg.
A Look Back on Previous Artist in Factory Projects
