distinguish the limit from the edge is an intergenerational dialogue between Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and Jimmy Robert. Their connection emerges through the intersection of text and image between selected work from Cha’s oeuvre and Robert’s practice that share the formal strategies of the fold.

Robert’s utilizes paper as a sculptural material, and his hand sometimes appears to shape the page. For Cha, the fold is present in her compositions enmeshing language through strategies of visual poetry, as in L’Image Concrete feuille L’Objet Abstrait (1976),  and Untitled (après tu parti) (1976) which are both previously unpublished. The possibility of overlaying of one’s work with the other, emphasised by the book’s spiral-bound double spine, and reverse fold-outs, forges an intimacy, a shared sensibility, and an encounter with the corporeal. In conversation with editor Jacob Korczynski, Robert refers to Fred Moten’s In The Break, stating, ‘Suddenly time falters. Words don’t go there. And if words don’t go there, then what does?’ 

distinguish the limit from the edge is commissioned by Book Works, edited by Jacob Korczynski and designed by Wolfe Hall. The book is published in association with Participant Inc. with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Arts Management Services, after the exhibition:

flipping through pages keeping a record of time: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha & Jimmy Robert curated by Jacob Korczynski at Participant Inc., 6 September – 3 November, 2024, supported by a Fall 2020 Curatorial Research Fellowship from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Published October 2025

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha was born on March 4, 1951 in Busan, South Korea. Her family remained in Korea until 1962 when they emigrated to America, settling first in Hawaii and then moving to San Francisco in 1964. After graduating from high school, Cha enrolled briefly at the University of San Francisco and then transferred to the University of California at Berkeley where she continued her studies for ten years, receiving four degrees: B.A. Comparative Literature (1973), B.A. Art (1975), M.A. Art (1977), and M.F.A. Art (1978). In 1976 Cha lived in Europe, studying at the Centre d’Etudes Americaine du Cinema in Paris and living briefly in Amsterdam. In August of 1980 Cha moved to New York City. She worked for Tanam Press, producing Dictée, a book-form collage of poetry, found text, and images; and editing Apparatus, an anthology of writings on film theory. In 1982 Cha was the artist-in-residence at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax. On November 5, 1982, Cha was murdered in New York City.

Recent solo exhibitions include Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: audience distant relative (2022) curated by Min Sun Jeon at the Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson and Between the Teeth (2021) organized by Isabelle Sully & Matt Hinkley (Unbidden Tongues) at Manifold Books, Amsterdam. Recent group exhibitions include Cascadence (2021) organized by K.R.M. Mooney and McIntyre Parker at Altman Siegel, San Francisco and Dust Clay Stone (2020) curated by Haeju Kim at Art Sonje Center, Seoul.

Jimmy Robert was born in Guadeloupe (FR) in 1975 and currently lives and works between Paris and Berlin. Robert was the subject of a mid-career survey at Nottingham Contemporary in 2020, which travelled to Museion, Bolzano and CRAC Occitanie, Sète in 2021. Recent solo exhibitions include Moderna Museet, Malmö (2023); Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2022); Künstlerhaus Bremen (2022); The Hunterian, Glasgow (2021); La Synagogue De Delme, France (2016); Museum M, Leuven (2017); Power Plant, Toronto (2013); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2012); and Jeu de Paume, Paris (2012). Robert’s performances have also been presented at Tate Britain, London; MoMA, New York and Migros Museum, Zurich.

His most recent installation, Joie Noire premiered in 2019 at KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin and travelled to Kaaitheater, Brussels. It was reprised in March 2023 on the occasion of Exposé·es, a group exhibition curated by François Piron at Palais de Tokyo, Paris in conjunction with a solo exhibition of Robert’s work at the Centre National de la Danse, Paris-Pantin, and at Artspace in Auckland, New-Zealand, 2024.

Jacob Korczynski is a curator and a PhD candidate at the Malmö Art Academy. He has curated projects for the Stedelijk Museum, Cooper Cole, Western Front, and the Badischer Kunstverein, and his writing has been published by Afterall, BOMB, Camera Austria, and Flash Art. With his curatorial projects taking the form of exhibitions, screenings, and publications, he is also the editor of I See/La Camera: I (If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution), Andrew James Paterson’s Collection/Correction (Kunstverein Toronto & Mousse Publishing), Jimmy Robert’s Revue (Leopold-Hoesch-Museum), and Nour Bishouty’s 1—130 Selected Works Ghassan Bishouty b. 1941 Safad, Palestine — d. 2004 Amman, Jordan (Art Metropole & Motto Books). The recent recipient of a Curatorial Research Fellowship from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, he is also the recipient of the inaugural General Idea Fellowship from The National Gallery of Canada.