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From the Hindenburg to the DMZ, contemporary artist Lee Bul's latest exhibit explores failed utopias

Published: 01 Sep. 2025, 17:16 Updated: 01 Sep. 2025, 19:47

LEE JIAN
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Portrait of artist Lee Bul at the ″Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now″ exhibit in Leeum Museum of Art in Yongsan District, central Seoul [LEEUM MUSEUM OF ART]

Remnants of humanity’s failed utopias line the halls of Leeum Museum of Art, showcasing a comprehensive survey of Korea’s leading contemporary artist, Lee Bul.

The giant steel oblong vessel hanging in the exhibit's entrance, for example, was inspired by the German zeppelin Hindenburg, which famously exploded over New Jersey in 1937, killing 36 people. Titled “Willing To Be Vulnerable–Metallized Balloon” (2015-16, 2020), it represents both technological progress and the destruction it can cause to humanity.

"Aubade V” (2019) is built from scrap taken from dismantled guard posts in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which were removed in 2018 during a brief inter-Korean peace agreement. The tower-like structure and the flashing LED text about the Earth’s million-year axial cycle set cosmic time against the fleeting nature of political deals.

″Aubade V″ (2019) [LEEUM MUSEUM OF ART]

“The past doesn’t simply pass by – it constantly enters the present,” the 61-year-old artist told reporters at the museum in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Monday. “Even after 10 or 20 years, the same issues remain. People may frame them in new paradigms, but in fact, they have always been there and have never been overcome. And what cannot be overcome cannot truly be let go.”

Leeum’s exhibit, titled “Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now,” set for public opening on Sept. 4, brings together around 150 works by Lee, spanning from the late 1990s to the present.

A scene from the ″Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now″ exhibit [LEEUM MUSEUM OF ART]

She was first recognized for provocative performance art, especially “Abortion” (1989), where she suspended herself nude, recited poetry, discussed abortion, and threw lollipops to the audience at the Dongsoong Art Center.

She subsequently gained international fame with “Majestic Splendor” (1997) – an installation featuring raw, dead fish decorated with jewels – which was taken down just before its opening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York due to the pungent smell of decay.

The upcoming Leeum exhibition showcases her works from this period, as her work shifted from visceral performances with feminist elements to sculpture and installation, and since the late 2000s, two-dimensional paintings that explore more macro interactions among the human body, architecture and the environment.

A scene from ″Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now″ exhibit featuring "Civitas Solis II" (2014) [LEEUM MUSEUM OF ART]

Highlights of the show include “Civitas Solis II” (2014), one of her largest installations to date, which is a dark, vast space lined with mirror fragments on the floor and walls, and approximately 260 LED lights. Reflecting and fragmenting everything, it creates countless illusions and a distorted path to depict the disorienting environment that exists on the boundary between utopia and dystopia.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is “Mon grand récit: Weep into stones...” (2005), a quasi-architectural installation that depicts a clash of different cultures and their visions of utopia. In the middle of the work is a tall white structure, inspired by Hugh Ferriss’s futuristic tower design from “The Metropolis of Tomorrow” (1929), filled with fragments of Constructivist and Bauhaus architecture. Nearby, an upside-down replica of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia sits above muddy ground supported by scaffolding, suggesting construction or demolition. A screen flashes a line from 17th-century philosopher Thomas Browne: “Weep into stones, fables like snow, our few evil days.”

″Mon grand recit: Weep into stones...″ (2005) [Mori Art Museum]

For Lee, these works are less about labels than about expressing her experiences, observations, and evolving sense of identity.

“I don’t like to define my work or scope,” she said. “My work reflects my interests, which stem from the way I was raised, what I have learned, my reasons for living, and the phenomena I observe. These elements are naturally embedded in my work.

“I see identity not as something fixed, but as constantly in motion. The moment you try to define it, it loses its vitality and disappears.”

“Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now” runs through Jan. 4 and will travel to M+ in Hong Kong in March 2026.

″Perdu XVII″ (2019) [LEE BUL]

Lee received a BFA in sculpture from Hongik University. She has held solo exhibitions at Art Sonje Center, Seoul (1998); Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2004); Fondation Cartier, Paris (2007); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (2014); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015); Hayward Gallery, London (2018); Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2018); and Seoul Museum of Art (2021).

Her work is in the collections of institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Tate Modern and British Museum, London; Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; M+, Hong Kong; and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.