2024-04-09 10:02:21
“I record the living universe as if I were writing a diary. “I feel this season, day, time, the sound of grass, the sound of waves, sunset, the end of the day, and even silence.”
Swiss contemporary artist Ugo Rondinone is holding a solo exhibition in Korea for the first time in two years. In 2022, the Kukje Gallery introduced a colorful bronze sculpture over 2 meters long and visited Korea again with the sculptures that drew attention.
Ugo Rondinone’s largest solo exhibition in Korea, ‘BURN TO SHINE’, will be held at Museum SAN (Director Ahn Young-joo), operated by the Hansol Cultural Foundation, until September 18.
This is Ugo Rondinone’s first exhibition held at Museum Mountain, encompassing the Nam June Paik Museum and the outdoor Stone Garden, and introduces over 40 works including sculpture, painting, installation, and video. The entire exhibition is a comprehensive work that talks about human existence and experiences formed along with the cycle of life and nature, the relationship between humans and nature, and the relationship between humans and nature, which the artist has constantly reflected on through his work over the past 30 years.
The giant bronze sculpture, which was locked in a white exhibition hall two years ago, has been erected outdoors on the museum mountain and in the Nam June Paik Hall, creating a solemn atmosphere with natural light.
Rondinone’s attempt to pursue spiritual thinking through nature reaches a new peak in the ‘Nuns+Monks’ series.
At the Nam June Paik Pavilion, a 4m high ‘yellow red monk’ greets the audience with the solemnity of a medieval saint under natural light streaming down from the circular ceiling, and in the outdoor stone garden, there are 6 works of nuns and monks. Combined with the natural stones in the garden, it is reminiscent of a huge stone pillar from prehistoric times.
These monuments, which are over 3 meters tall, are cast in bronze but are based on smaller-scale limestone models. Regarding this, the artist explained, “Stones are a material and symbol that appears repeatedly in my work.”
“It started with the ‘human nature’ stone sculpture presented at Rockefeller Square in 2013 and continued with ‘Seven Magic Mountains’ installed in the Nevada desert in 2016. Both works are attempts to explore and appreciate natural stones as objects of beauty and contemplation, allowing the viewer to have a very personal and meditative visual experience in which the boundaries between the outside world and the inner world are broken down. Through this, I created a sculpture about what seeing feels like and what it means, regardless of whether it is a physical or metaphysical phenomenon.”
‘Nuns and Monks’ also continues this dual reflection between the inner world and external nature. Just as the external world seen by a person cannot be separated from his or her inner self, in ‘Nuns and Monks’ multiple layers of meaning vibrate from close and distant places, completely immersing the viewer in the work’s pure colors, shapes, and scale. It provides a contemporary sublimity along with a sensory experience.
In this exhibition, the video ‘Burn to Shine’ (2022), in which a flame burns out and begins again with darkness, is played in infinite repetition, while a series of 11 horse sculptures cast in blue glass are also displayed. .
These works, which use the names of oceans around the world as their titles, are produced slightly smaller than the actual size, and each work has its own unique blue color. At the same time, a transparent horizontal line crosses the silhouette of a horse in the center of the work, and they are soon reborn as vessels containing each seascape.
Ugo Lonlinone’s horse sculptures symbolize the concepts of space, time, and nature that the artist has repeatedly explored in his work over the past 30 years. Each work is a combination of the four elements of water, air, earth (expressed in the form of words), and fire, which are condensed into a substance called glass. On the other hand, the works go beyond the perfectly finished glass surface and move toward infinite space, becoming prisms that create a ‘landscape of light’ by shining infinite blue light that changes every moment throughout the exhibition hall. In this, the vertical and opaque presence of the audience moves between illusion-like words, creating a dramatic contrast.
Museum SAN officials said, “In the works of Ugo Rondinone, who leads contemporary art in the world today, we can see that the three vertices of life, humans, and nature are harmoniously connected. “We expect that the artist’s work, which advocates holistic art that reflects on life, will resonate deeply with the audience,” he said.
◆What about Ugo Rondinone?
Born in Switzerland in 1964, he is a representative artist of contemporary contemporary art. He deals with a wide range of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and video performance. Center Pompidou, Paris (2003), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2006), Art Institute of Chicago (2013), Rockbund Museum, Shanghai (2014), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015), Museum of Modern Art, Rome (2016), Nimes Carredard Museum (2016) 2016), Berkeley Art Museum (2017), Bath Museum Miami (2017), Belvedere Palace Museum in Vienna (2021), Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City (2022), Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt (2022), Petit Palais in Paris (2022), Geneva It has been introduced through solo exhibitions at the Art History Museum (2013), the Storm King Art Center in New York (2023), and the Stedel Museum in Frankfurt (2023). In 2007, he participated as the artist for the Swiss national pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale.
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2024-04-09 10:02:21