Lee Bae Exhibition – 60th Venice Biennale

Brushstroke. The floor and walls of the main exhibition space were covered with white paper, traditionally mounted by Korean artisans using an ancestral technique. The gallery thus became the very support for the painted works that traverse the space—the Brushstroke—executed with charcoal paint made from the ashes of the “House of the Burnt Moon” ceremony. The artist used an 80-centimeter-wide brush in a single, continuous motion, never lifting it from the surface. The exhibition space itself becomes a symbolic representation of hope born from collective aspirations.

Meok. Serving as a focal point for meditation and reflection, the monumental sculpture Meok rises within the space: a monolith carved from black Zimbabwean granite, 4.6 meters tall, evoking the traditional ink stick used in Korean scholarly and cultural circles as a tool for transmitting knowledge across generations. Crafted in workshops in Carrara, Italy, this monumental work was constructed using granite slabs bonded to honeycomb panels to reduce its weight, which otherwise would have been impossible to transport to Venice. Its engraved surfaces evoke both the waves of the Venetian lagoon and the flickering flames of the “House of the Burnt Moon.”