Ayoung Kim Dances Through Dimensions at Hamburger Bahnhof

Ayoung Kim b. 1979, South Korea Follow +

Eunji Park meets Ayoung Kim‘s digital doppelgängers in the Korean artist’s first exhibition in Germany at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin.

What would happen if you encountered another self from one of the countless parallel universes beyond the world we inhabit? Seoul-based interdisciplinary artist Ayoung Kim explores this question by opening a portal to multiple realms in her exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, Many Worlds Over.

In the video series ‘Delivery Dancer’ (2022–2024), which forms the centrepiece of this exhibition, Kim uses film, 3D scans, game engines, and generative AI to portray the surreal realities of delivery drivers whose actions are dictated by AI algorithms. The narrative’s protagonists traverse multiple dimensions and encounter their digital doppelgängers—a potent metaphor for the fragmentation and expansion of identity in our digital society. Kim has long interrogated societal issues—discrimination, gender, and labour rights—through a range of media and cutting-edge technologies. Here, AI transcends its role as a tool to emerge as a collaborative and creative agent in human-technology partnerships.

The series begins with Delivery Dancer’s Sphere (2022), inspired by Kim’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. It follows Ernst Mo, a courier for the titular delivery platform, who encounters En Storm, a version of herself from another world, while navigating ever-changing delivery routes. Their unexpected meeting creates confusion and conflict, unfolding with palpable tension against the backdrop of Seoul‘s techno-futuristic nightscape.

In the sequel, Delivery Dancer’s Arc: 0° Receiver (2024), Mo and Storm have evolved into resistance operatives battling their way across the multiverse. They transport ancient artefacts containing the essence of time itself, all the while fighting an algorithm that seeks to flatten temporal experience in favour of efficiency. During their journeys across arid landscapes, urban sprawls, and parallel universes, they delve into ancient time systems and celestial technologies. Through these encounters, the artist offers a scathing critique of contemporary society’s productivity cult—a world where individuals, despite their relentless toil, perpetually feel left behind.

The works immerse gallery visitors in an intense audiovisual experience, blending imaginative cinematic storytelling with gaming interactivity. The exhibition space, enveloped in blue carpet to echo the dominant hue of the videos, is delicately subdivided by metal frames to represent the multilayered worlds of the narrative. Walking along a corridor, visitors encounter Ghost Dancers A (2022), a sculpture featuring two opposing helmets symbolising Mo’s and Storm’s parallel existences, while Ghost Dancers B (2022)—two mannequins dressed to represent the characters positioned wrestling on the gallery floor surrounded by broken glass—breaks through the dimension and into our reality. Delivery Dancer Simulation (2022) inverts this dynamic by giving visitors game controllers that enable them to become algorithm-controlled couriers navigating a maze of buildings.

These layered experiences are augmented in the exhibition design with mirrors that activate an interplay between digital and corporeal realms. Through this carefully orchestrated fusion of animation, video, and installation, the viewer’s reflection ruptures and becomes multiple. At this intersection of fractured realities, Kim asks us: Are you ready to meet your algorithmic double? —[O]

Ayoung Kim: Many Worlds Over is on view at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin from 28 February to 20 July 2025.

Main image: Ayoung Kim, Ghost Dancers B (2022). Exhibition view: Many Worlds Over, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin (28 February–20 July 2025). Courtesy © Ayoung Kim, Gallery Hyundai, and Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photo: Jacopo LaForgia.