Mire Lee (b. 1988), the artist selected for this year’s ‘Hyundai Commission,’ is holding her solo exhibition "Hyundai Commission: Mire Lee: Open Wound" at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, which runs until March 16, 2025.
 
The ‘Hyundai Commission’ is an exhibition project that has been presented annually since 2014 as part of the partnership between Hyundai Motor and Tate. Each year, it showcases new artworks in the large-scale exhibition space of Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. With participation from world-renowned artists such as Philippe Parreno, SUPERFLEX, and Anicka Yi, Mire Lee has been chosen as the ninth Hyundai Commission artist, making her the first and youngest Korean artist to receive this honor.
 
Based in Seoul and Amsterdam, Mire Lee explores the possibilities of materials and forms through processes like pouring, dropping, and inflating industrial materials such as steel, cement, and silicone. She has expanded the boundaries of art by utilizing the power of sculpture to impact not only the viewer but also the surrounding environment.

This exhibition marks her first large-scale show in the UK and is structured around the history of British industry, as Tate Modern was once a former power station. Inside the exhibition space, textile sculptures, described as "Skin," are suspended from the ceiling, hanging from 49 metal chains. At the far end of Turbine Hall, a 7-meter-long turbine is attached to an old crane, which has been specially reactivated for this exhibition.
 
In addition to the turbine, once located at the heart of the former power station, Lee has removed part of the outer surface of the bridge that crosses the hall, revealing the internal structure and evoking the memory of the building's industrial past. Surrounding the rotating turbine, silicone tubes emit a dark pink liquid, which collects in trays below. These trays, lined with construction mesh-like fabric, absorb the liquid and transform into new "skin" sculptures.

During the exhibition, a technician transfers these sculptures to a drying rack, creating a scene that resembles both an artisan’s craft and a factory production line. Moreover, the landscape of the hanging skin sculptures recalls the changing rooms where coal miners would hang their clothes on pulleys, marking the boundary between work and rest.
Lee finds a human element in the slowly rotating turbine and creates a situation in which the building seems to shed its skin as the number of “skin” sculptures gradually increases throughout the exhibition. By doing so, she reveals the fragility of humanity while emphasizing the need for human care and attention, exploring the cycles of growth and decay throughout history.
 
This exhibition, which reflects Mire Lee’s unique visual language using industrial materials, provides an opportunity to experience the tension and harmony between humans and machines, softness and hardness, interior and exterior, as well as individuals and the collective, evoking a powerful emotional response.

References

• 테이트 모던 (Tate Modern)
• 현대자동차 보도자료 (Hyundai Motor Press Release)

Ji Yeon Lee has been working as an editor for the media art and culture channel AliceOn since 2021 and worked as an exhibition coordinator at samuso (now Space for Contemporary Art) from 2021 to 2023.