Art in Dongsan Presents Sori Choi’s VISIBLE SOUND: Five Elements at VOLTA Basel 2026
- Feb 27
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 9
Presented in the curated Frische! section of VOLTA Basel 2026, Sori Choi’s VISIBLE SOUND: Five Elements transforms rhythm and vibration into material traces, unfolding as a progression of energy through Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and Life.
Date
June. 17(Wed.)~21(Sun.), 2026
VIP Preview Day: June 17 (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM)
Venue
Hall 4.U, Congress Center, Basel Switzerland
Booth
Press Release
Art in Dongsan Presents Sori Choi’s VISIBLE SOUND: Five Elements at VOLTA Basel 2026
Art in Dongsan is pleased to announce its participation in the curated Frische! section of VOLTA Basel 2026, presenting Sori Choi’s VISIBLE SOUND: Five Elements.
Frische! is VOLTA’s curated platform dedicated to emerging perspectives and experimental curatorial positions, highlighting galleries and artists who expand the language of contemporary art.
Sori Choi is a Korean artist and percussionist who has explored sound, rhythm, and vibration for more than four decades through both performance and visual art. Having performed in over 200 cities worldwide, Choi has developed a singular practice in which sound is not only heard, but seen, recorded, and experienced as a material force.
For VOLTA Basel 2026, Art in Dongsan presents a focused selection of Choi’s metal-based works from the VISIBLE SOUND series, particularly percussed and ground works on naturally corroded aluminum, copper, and brass. Through striking, grinding, corrosion, and repetition, rhythm and vibration leave visible traces within matter. Rather than representing sound, Choi’s works embody its residual energy.
The presentation unfolds through Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and Life as a progression of energy — from ignition, to resonance, to transformation. At the center, selected works from Choi’s ongoing 24 Solar Terms series translate seasonal cycles into material traces of repetition, time, and resonance.
This presentation marks a significant moment in the international contextualization of Choi’s practice and reflects Art in Dongsan’s long-term commitment to sustained artistic inquiry beyond episodic visibility.
Through its participation in VOLTA Basel 2026, Art in Dongsan continues to position itself within an international curatorial framework, fostering dialogue between experimental Korean artistic practice and global audiences.
VISIBLE SOUND: Sunset of the Week
Fire 화(火)
VISIBLE SOUND: Sunset of the Week, 119x59cm(each), Percussed on burnt copper, 2022
Sunset of the Week is part of Sori Choi’s ongoing exploration of sound, energy, and transformation through material processes.
Created on copper surfaces using fire as both medium and gesture, the work originates from the artist’s performative approach to making. Rather than applying pigment, Choi works directly with flame, allowing heat, combustion, oxidation, and time to leave visible traces on the metal surface. The process resembles a performance in which the artist “plays” fire as he would a percussion instrument.
The work belongs to a larger series inspired by the changing colors and atmosphere of sunsets observed over the course of a week. Each piece records a distinct moment within this cycle, not as a literal depiction of landscape, but as an interpretation of energy in transition.
In Choi’s practice, fire represents the point of emergence—the moment when dormant energy becomes visible. The resulting surface embodies both destruction and creation, where combustion becomes image and transformation becomes form.
Part of the broader VISIBLE SOUND: Five Elements project, Sunset of the Week reflects the artist’s ongoing investigation into how rhythm, vibration, and elemental forces can be translated into material presence.
VISIBLE SOUND: Song of the Wind
Wind 풍(風)
Visible Sound: Song of the Wind, 112x51cm(each), Percussed, ground on aluminum, 2022
Song of the Wind explores the invisible yet ever-present movement of air through material form.
Working with metal surfaces such as aluminum, copper, and brass, Sori Choi strikes, grinds, and shapes the material through repeated physical actions. The resulting textures and contours capture a sense of movement, rhythm, and fluctuation, evoking the countless forms that wind assumes as it passes through the world.
Rather than depicting a specific landscape or moment, the work reflects the transient nature of wind itself—constantly shifting, changing direction, and remaining beyond direct perception. Through the artist’s process, these invisible forces become embedded within the material surface.
As light moves across the work, reflections continuously transform its appearance, revealing varying depths, shadows, and spatial relationships. The surface responds to the viewer’s position, creating a dynamic visual experience in which the image is never fixed, but constantly unfolding.
Part of Choi’s broader VISIBLE SOUND: Five Elements series, Song of the Wind translates movement, vibration, and impermanence into a visual language that exists between painting, object, and spatial experience.
VISIBLE SOUND: The 24 Solar Terms Series
Water 수(水)
VISIBLE SOUND: The 24 Solar Terms Series, 120x40cm(each), Percussed and ground on naturally corroded aluminum, 2021
Sori Choi’s The 24 Solar Terms series extends his long-term inquiry into the transformation of sound into visual and spatial form. Rooted in the traditional East Asian calendar, each work corresponds to a specific seasonal moment, translating cyclical changes in nature into material traces.
Originally trained as a percussionist, Choi approaches material through rhythm, vibration, and gesture. By striking, grinding, and interacting physically with metal surfaces—often naturally corroded aluminum—he allows sound to register directly within the material. Rather than depicting sound, the works embody its residual energy, where repetition and resonance accumulate over time.
In this series, the temporal structure of the 24 Solar Terms becomes a framework through which sonic action, natural cycles, and material processes converge, forming a visual language that unfolds between painting, performance, and object.
For VOLTA Basel 2026, Choi presents six works from the series corresponding to the summer seasonal cycle—Ip-ha (Beginning of Summer), So-man (Lesser Fullness), Mang-jong (Grain in Ear), Ha-ji (Summer Solstice), So-seo (Lesser Heat), and Dae-seo (Greater Heat). Selected in relation to the timing of VOLTA Basel, these works mark a progression from emergence and expansion to peak intensity, reinforcing the exhibition’s broader exploration of energy, resonance, and transformation within VISIBLE SOUND: Five Elements.
VISIBLE SOUND: KALPA (Kalpa)
Earth 지(地)
VISIBLE SOUND: Kalpa, 劫겁, 120x60cm(each), Percussed on naturally corroded brass or copper, 2022
KALPA is part of a long-term body of work developed through a collaboration between the artist and nature.
Created in Cheonghak-dong, Jiri Mountains, the work begins with sheets of copper, brass, and aluminum placed in forests, valleys, streams, and soil for extended periods of time. Exposed to rain, snow, wind, sunlight, insects, minerals, and seasonal change, the metal surfaces gradually record the passage of nature itself.
Rather than controlling the image from the outset, Sori Choi allows natural processes to create the initial composition. Corrosion, erosion, stains, textures, and traces emerge through years of interaction between material and environment.
The artist then returns to the transformed surface, striking, grinding, and working the metal through rhythm and gesture. The resulting work becomes a record of both natural forces and human action.
The title KALPA refers to an immeasurably long span of time. Like geological formations shaped over centuries, these works embody accumulation, transformation, and endurance. They are not representations of nature, but physical records of time itself—where earth, water, wind, light, and sound converge within a single surface. In KALPA, nature is not a subject to be represented, but an active collaborator in the creation of the work.
VISIBLE SOUND: Emergence of Being(L), Cycle of Life(R)
Life 생(生)
Emergence of Being, 60x60cm, Mixed media on aluminum, 2017 Cycle of Life, 60x60cm, Mixed media on aluminum, 2017
Emergence of Being(L) explores the relationship between identity, energy, and transformation.
Rather than depicting a physical likeness, the work presents the self as a process of emergence shaped by accumulated experience, vibration, and memory. Layers of paint, oxidation, and material intervention converge to form a figure that appears to emerge and dissolve simultaneously.
Within the Five Elements structure, Life represents the moment when energy takes form. The self-portrait becomes not a representation of appearance, but a trace of existence shaped by time, action, and continuous transformation.
Through the interplay of gesture, material process, and abstraction, Choi reflects on life not as a fixed identity, but as an evolving state of becoming.
Cycle of Life(R) explores life as a continuous process of energy, memory, and transformation.
Fragments of the human face emerge within a field of intense red forms, suggesting the coexistence of individuality and collective existence. The surface combines paint, oxidation, and material intervention, creating a visual rhythm that evokes growth, circulation, and regeneration.
Rather than portraying a recognizable likeness, the work reflects the vitality that underlies existence itself. Within the Five Elements structure, Life represents the culmination of Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth—a state in which the energies of nature converge and take form.
Both personal and universal, the work presents life not as a fixed condition, but as an ongoing process of becoming, renewal, and transformation.
VISIBLE SOUND: Sunset Resonance, 60x40cm VISIBLE SOUND: Yunsul(Glittering Reflections), 60x40cm
VISIBLE SOUND: Yunsul(Glittering Reflections), 15x10cm, Percussed and ground on brass, 2024
VISIBLE SOUND: After Sunset, 15x10cm, Percussed on burnt copper, 2024
VISIBLE SOUND: Song of the Wind,15x10cm, Percussed and ground on aluminum, 2024
More Works on ARTSY