“Ununderstood, Yet Life Felt Worth Living” — Lee Kun-yong’s 50 Years of Experimental Art
Creatrip Team
6 months ago
At Pace Gallery Seoul through March 28, 84-year-old artist Lee Kun-yong reenacted his 1975 performance 'Logic of Place,' drawing a circle on the floor and using repetitive spoken markers to probe how 'here' and 'there' depend on each person’s position. The exhibition 'The Thinking Body' marks his 50-year practice of performance art—what he calls 'Logical Events'—and displays archival videos, photographs, and detailed instruction notes that show his performances are planned, rule-based actions exploring the limits of language through bodily acts. Works on view include early pieces such as 'Same Area,' 'Interior Measurement' (measuring space by unrolling tape), 'Hand Logic 3,' the awkward 'eating hardtack' (건빵 먹기) performed with a plastered stiff arm, and the 'Bodyscape' paintings that translate bodily trajectories into canvases. A founding figure in Korea’s avant-garde groups and ST (Space and Time), Lee faced misunderstanding and state suspicion in the 1970s—his public interventions were sometimes dismantled and he was even detained and beaten—yet he says being 'misunderstood' fueled his creativity. Now in his eighties he welcomes the unpredictability of aging bodies as another source of artistic possibility. Exhibition runs free until March 28.
