Yein Lee - System of In-Between State

Yein Lee, Exhibition view, 15th Gwangju Biennale, (2024), Image courtesy of Gwangju Biennale Foundation, Photo : Studio Possiblezone

Installation View of 15th Gwangju Biennale 2024, System of In-between State 1-3, Commissioned by the 15th Gwangju Biennale and sponsored by Austria Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil service and Sport. Photo by Heoyu

Yein Lee, System of In-between State 3, 2024, Steel, polymer gypsum, epoxy putty, natural elements, silicone, found object, fiberglass, acrylic ink, lacquer, 174 × 84 × 88 cm, Courtesy of the artist. Sponsored by Austria Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil service and Sport. Commissioned by the 15th Gwangju Biennale. Photo by Heoyu, Courtesy of the artist

Yein Lee, System of In-between State 2, 2024, Steel, polymer gypsum, epoxy putty, branches, dry grape stalk, broken motor, repurposed house appliance, electrical cables, fiberglass, acrylic ink, lacquer, 175 × 100 × 110cm, Sponsored by Austria Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil service and Sport. Commissioned by the 15th Gwangju Biennale. Photo by Heoyu, Courtesy of the artist

Yein Lee, System of In-between State 2, 2024, Steel, polymer gypsum, epoxy putty, branches, dry grape stalk, broken motor, repurposed house appliance, electrical cables, fiberglass, acrylic ink, lacquer, 175 × 100 × 110cm, Sponsored by Austria Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil service and Sport. Commissioned by the 15th Gwangju Biennale. Photo by Heoyu

Installation View of 15th Gwangju Biennale 2024, System of In-between State 1, 2024, Steel, polymer gypsum, epoxy putty, branches, dry grape stalk, broken vacuum cleaner, electrical cables, fiberglass, acrylic ink, lacquer, 186 × 125 × 110cm(floor elements approx 300 cm), Commissioned by the 15th Gwangju Biennale. Sponsored by Austria Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil service and Sport. Photo by Heoyu

15th Gwangju Biennale PANSORI a soundscape of the 21st century

Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall · 111, Biennale-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju, South Korea

September 7–December 1, 2024

curated by Nicolas Bourriaud

Saâdane Afif, Haseeb Ahmed, Deniz Aktaş , Noel W. Anderson, Andrius Arutiunian, Kevin Beasley, Wendimagegn Belete, Bianca Bondi, Dora Budor, Peter Buggenhout, Angela Bulloch, Alex Cerveny, Cheng Xinhao, Choi Haneyl, Gaëlle Choisne, Anna Conway, Binta Diaw, John Dowell, Hayden Dunham, Liam Gillick, Loris Gréaud, Matthias Groebel, Matthew Angelo Harrison, Marguerite Humeau, Agata Ingarden, Hye Joo Jun, Jun Hyoung San, Kim Hyeong Suk, Kim Jayi, YoungEun Kim, Dominique Knowles, Agnieszka Kurant, Hyewon Kwon, Netta Laufer, Brianna Leatherbury, Yein Lee, Oswaldo Maciá, Mira Mann, Cinthia Marcelle, Vladislav Markov, Beaux Mendes, Myriam Mihindou, Na Mira, Saadia Mirza, David Noonan , Katja Novitskova, Josèfa Ntjam, Emeka Ogboh, Frida Orupabo, Lydia Ourahmane, Mimi Park, Philippe Parreno, Amol K. Patil, Harrison Pearce, Lucy Raven, Tabita Rezaire, Marina Rheingantz, Marina Rosenfeld, Max Hooper Schneider, Franck Scurti, Soomin Shon, Jura Shust, Marianna Simnett, Sofya Skidan, Anastasia Sosunova, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Sung Tieu, Julian Abraham “Togar”, Unmake Lab, Yuyan Wang, Ambera Wellmann, Kandis Williams and Phillip Zach.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, and having lived as a foreigner in Europe, Yein Lee has been influenced by how identity politics, as related to the body, shapes subjectivity, agency, and otherness. Driven by personal, self-reflective questions around identity, Lee recycles and simultaneously uses prefabricated objects that she combines with molded and handmade elements. She gives a second life to discarded products such as steering wheels or faulty household appliances by combining them with electrical cables, glue, or epoxy putty to create new singular and enigmatic bodies.

The series System of In-between State comprises multiple bodily sculptures representing hybridity and fragility. The complex sculptures are cyborgian in form through the combination of human and technological structures. In a state of flux where it is uncertain whether the forms are coming to life or in a state of deterioration, the sculptures reflect the ambiguity in contemporary society of the relationship with technology. Denoting multiplicity that’s also marked by a fractured desire for connection, Lee’s sculptures reach out to their surrounding spaces asking to reestablish contact.

- Excerpt from the catalogue text of the Gwangju Biennale

System of In-between State 1-3 are commissioned by the 15th Gwangju Biennale and sponsored by Austria Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil service and Sport.