Installation view of Civitas Solis II ©MMCA

The Hyundai Motor Series at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) is a long-term sponsorship program established between MMCA and Hyundai Motor Company to support large-scale projects by mid-career Korean artists. This series was designed to present new attitudes and possibilities in contemporary Korean art while reinforcing the presence of mid-career artists. By supporting artists who have built a distinctive body of work, the series aims to inspire creativity and provide an opportunity for a pivotal transformation in their artistic careers.

In 2014, the series launched its inaugural exhibition, featuring Lee Bul (born 1964) as its first artist. Since the late 1990s, Lee has exhibited in prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the New Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Venice Biennale, the Centre Pompidou, and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Through these exhibitions, she has established herself as one of the most significant contemporary artists, both in Korea and internationally. With her exceptional artistic sensibility and critical inquiries, she has continuously questioned and explored the fundamental structures of society since the 1980s. Having worked primarily overseas for many years, Lee Bul now presents the large-scale new projects Civitas Solis II and Aubade III in Korea through this exhibition.



Mon grand récit

Lee Bul’s Mon grand récit series, which she had been conceptualizing for a long time, was first introduced in 2005. Expanding upon her earlier works that examined the oppressive relationship between the body and society, as well as the bleak future of technological civilization, this series explores the dominant architectural discourses of the early 20th century, reconfiguring them as grand spatial installations.

Since her 2007 solo exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Mon grand récit has reflected the artist’s personal memories and experiences while visualizing the collective aspirations and failures associated with utopian ideals. This series embodies Lee Bul’s perspective on Jean-François Lyotard’s argument that grand narratives, or méta-récits, are no longer possible in the postmodern era. Recognizing the impossibility of such narratives, the artist instead focuses on fragmented, incomplete, and unresolved “small” stories. Through her work, she prompts the audience to reconsider traces of historical corruption, the failures of modernist idealism, and the enduring specters of modernity that continue to appear in our daily consciousness.



Civitas Solis and Aubade

Installtion view of Aubade III ©MMCA

The works Civitas Solis II and Aubade III in Hyundai Motor Series: Lee Bul are extensions of the Mon grand récit series. The monumental installation Civitas Solis II, measuring 33 meters in length and 7 meters in height, transforms the entire exhibition space into an immersive environment. The walls and floor of the space are covered in mirrors, creating an infinitely expanding space in which visitors lose their sense of boundaries. In this overwhelming setting, where perception and control are challenged, a sense of anxiety emerges.

Civitas Solis II draws inspiration from The City of the Sun, a book by the Renaissance philosopher and utopian thinker Tommaso Campanella. Considered a classic in utopian literature, the book describes an ideal city that reflects the author's radical reformist visions. Lee Bul adopts the circular walled structure of this city and employs mirrors as a metaphorical device. The installation features massive glowing bulbs attached to mirrored surfaces, which reflect and invert forms, revealing the phrase "CIVITAS SOLIS" in flickering lights.

The overwhelming scale and the extension of perception beyond its usual limits create an atmosphere of unease, fear, and even awe. Although the space appears calm and serene, the fractured reflections of shattered floor fragments give the impression of a silent scream. The irregular movements and flows of these mirrored shards recall voices buried beneath an immense sense of tranquility.

Another new work, Aubade III, is an evolved version of the artist’s previous light tower structures. The title Aubade refers to a lyrical form that was popular in the Middle Ages and the 16th century, often depicting the dramatic sorrow of parting lovers at dawn. Standing at 15 meters high, this vertically oriented installation takes inspiration from the Monument des Neuen Gesetzes (1919) by German architect Bruno Taut and the structural form of the Hindenburg Airship, an early 20th-century icon of modernity.

At regular intervals, the structure emits smoke from within, gradually filling the exhibition space. As the space becomes entirely engulfed in a dense white mist, bright lights flicker above, creating a dreamlike atmosphere.

Lee Bul examines all modern projects aimed at human liberation and freedom as narratives of utopian desire, challenging their implications. She raises fundamental questions about our persistent obsession with the notion of “perfection” throughout history. By confronting the illusory nature of this ideal and its stark reality, she forces us to acknowledge the uncomfortable truths we might otherwise prefer to ignore.

Her work navigates the intersections of life and death, beauty and ugliness, the secular and the sacred, reality and dreams—venturing coldly yet fervently in search of their origins and boundaries.

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