Lee Bul On Every New Shadow

In 2007, the Korean artist Lee Bul created a monumental installation for the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain featuring 12 crystal and aluminum sculptures that formed a landscape of glittering ruins and vestiges in a somber, entrancing ambiance. Hanging in the air or anchored to the ground on which they were mirrored, these sculptures formed a unique environment specifically designed for Jean Nouvel’s architecture.
Mirrors, reflections, beads, metal crafted like lace: the impressively lightweight feel of these ample volumes forms the thread running through the exhibition catalog, designed as a veritable book-object. It features an extensive selection of photographs of the installation in the Fondation Cartier’s spaces, with the artist’s drawings underlining the reference to the utopian architectures of Bruno Taut (1880–1938). An interview with Lee Bul sheds light on the theoretical aspect of his work, which, beyond pure aestheticism, confronts an idealized vision of the world with thoughts on the dark episodes of Korean history.