Tate Modern today unveiled a new large-scale sculptural installation by artist Mire Lee.
Lee reimagines the Turbine Hall as the inside of a body, transforming it into an eerie and fantastical factory. Blending her interest in rigid mechanical systems and soft organic forms with the industrial history of Tate Modern’s architecture, the work considers the emotional and physical impact of living in a world affected by precarity and decline. The artist’s first major presentation of work in the UK, the installation sees Lee explore the tension between beauty and the grotesque on an unrivalled scale. This is the ninth annual Hyundai Commission, made possible by the ongoing partnership between Tate and Hyundai Motor.
Hyundai Commission: Mire Lee: Open Wound, realises the Turbine Hall as a construction site, filling it with membranous fabric sculptures Lee calls ‘skins’, suspended from the ceiling on 54 metal chains. At the east end of the hall, a seven-metre-long turbine hangs from one of the building’s original cranes, especially recommissioned for this installation. This motorised mechanical device is a nod to the eponymous coal and oil-fired turbines that once occupied the heart of Tate Modern during the building’s former life as the Bankside Power Station. Removing the casing from the Turbine Hall bridge to offer a glimpse into its inner workings, Lee reawakens the building’s industrial past.
The new work also looks towards the duality of regeneration and decay. Slowly spinning, the industrial turbine assumes surprisingly human qualities, pumping dark pink viscous liquid through dangling vein-like silicone tubes, collecting in a large sloping tray underneath. Here, fabric sculptures made from construction mesh and bent steel rebar hang, absorbing the liquid to form new ‘skin’ sculptures. These are carried by technicians to drying racks, a process that feels both artisanal and suggestive of an industrial production line. Once dry, the skins are hoisted onto the chains suspended from the ceiling, redolent of the pulley systems used in coal miner’s changing rooms to dry uniforms and keep clothing clean, a liminal space between their labour and personal lives. Suggestive of anatomy, the skins speak of vulnerability, the necessity of care and human touch, and the production of new bodies and identities. Throughout the commission’s run, the number of new hanging skins will increase, creating a sense of the building ‘shedding’ increasingly over time.
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Materiality is central to Lee’s practice, and she exploits the visceral qualities of her sculptures and installations to generate emotional reactions. Employing Lee’s distinct visual language that creates organic, fleshy forms from industrial materials, Hyundai Commission: Mire Lee: Open Wound, presents a world of contrasts and thresholds: human and machine, soft and hard, inside and outside, individual and collective. The installation is intended to have an unsettling effect on the viewer, evoking a range of contradictory emotions including feelings of tenderness and empathy, as well as melancholy, awe and disgust. Engaging the senses on a bodily level, Lee considers our fears, vulnerabilities, hopes and desires as we stand together on the brink of an uncertain future.
Born in South Korea in 1988, Lee lives and works between Amsterdam and Seoul. Using industrial materials such as steel, cement, silicone, oil and clay, her work explores the animated nature of these materials as they pour, drip and bulge. Lee is interested in the power of sculpture to affect both the viewer and the immediate surroundings and is unafraid to push artistic boundaries in spectacular ways. Her atmospheric sculptures and installations engage the senses and create spaces to reflect on themes of emotion, precarity, and human desire.
Hyundai Commission: Mire Lee: Open Wound 9th October 2024 – 16th March 2025 Tate Modern
Hyundai Commission: Mire Lee: Open Wound is in partnership with Hyundai Motor. With support from The Mire Lee Supporters, The Mire Lee Supporters Circle and Tate Americas Foundation. Curated by Alvin Li, Curator, International Art, supported by Asymmetry Art Foundation, Tate Modern; and Bilal Akkouche, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern. Produced by Nancy Cooper, Production Manager, Tate Modern.
About the artist
Mire Lee lives and works between Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Seoul, South Korea. She has a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Sculpture (2012) and bachelor’s degree in Media Arts (2013) from the Seoul National University College of Fine Arts. Her recent solo exhibitions include Black Sun (2023) at the New Museum, New York; Look, I’m a fountain of filth raving mad with love (2022) at ZOLLAMTMMK, MMK Frankfurt; HR Giger & Mire Lee (2022) at Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin; and Carriers (2020) at Art Sonje Center, Seoul.
Lee’s work was also featured in several group exhibitions including presentations at the 59th Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2022), 11th Busan Biennale (2022), Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg (2021), Antenna Space, Shanghai (2020), the 15th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon (2019), Art Sonje, Seoul (2019), Sharjah Art Foundation (2019), and the 12th Gwangju Biennale Pavilion Project (2018). She took part in the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam residency in 2018.
About Hyundai Motor’s art projects
For over a decade, Hyundai Motor Company has deepened its partnerships with global museums and cultural organizations, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), Tate, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Most recently, Hyundai Motor announced a new 10-year partnership with the Whitney Museum of American Art to support the Whitney Biennial and the museum’s newly launched Hyundai Terrace Commission. Hyundai Motor’s own art-initiatives include open call programs such as the VH AWARD, the Hyundai Blue Prize, and Artlab Editorial, a digital platform dedicated to art writing by transnational voices. Our ongoing collaborations embrace the complexities of the cultural landscape by exploring new ideas and perspectives within and beyond the art ecosystem.Visit https://artlab.hyundai.com or follow @hyundai.artlab #HyundaiArtlab to learn more about our partnerships and programs.
