May 2024
Ugo Rondinone, Subject of Solo Exhibition BURN TO SHINE at Museum SAN, Wonju
BURN TO SHINE, a solo exhibition by the Swiss contemporary artist Ugo Rondinone, is currently on view at Museum San in Wonju, Korea. The exhibition marks the artist's largest solo exhibition in Korea to date, featuring a selection of his signature works alongside the museum's architecture, designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The exhibition features the cycles and relationships of life and nature, and the human existence and experience shaped by them, which Rondinone has been reflecting on for the past 30 years.
Spanning the museum's three galleries, the Nam June Paik Hall, and the outdoor stone garden, the presentation presents more than 40 works including sculptures, paintings, and videos. Central to the exhibition is the performance video burn to shine, which creates an overwhelming sensory experience with intense sound and body movements. In collaboration with the French Moroccan choreographer Fouad Boussouf, the work combines traditional rituals from Maghreb, Africa, with contemporary dance. Featuring male and female dancers dancing around a bonfire in an infinite loop, the work festively celebrates and commemorates life, while exploring the boundaries between life and death.
nuns + monks, a series of giant bronze casted sculptures are installed across the Nam June Paik Hall and the outdoor stone garden, encouraging a binary reflection of one’s inner self and the surrounding nature. Standing in the center of the Paik Nam June Pavilion is a monumental 4-meter high sculpture aweing visitors with its solemn atmosphere under natural light, reminiscent of medieval saints.
Meanwhile, the two works on display in the galleries on the first and second floors of the museum—your age and my age and the age of the sun and your age and my age and the age of the moon—are ongoing participatory projects, comprised of over 2,000 drawings by approximately 1,000 children in Wonju. Displayed in identical formats, the two sets of works, each symbolizing the sun and the moon, resonate with each other. Other works include the mattituck series, which depicts the sunset and moonrise; and a series of horse sculptures in blue glass, including beaufort sea and celtic sea. BURN TO SHINE in on view through September 18, 2024.
Spanning the museum's three galleries, the Nam June Paik Hall, and the outdoor stone garden, the presentation presents more than 40 works including sculptures, paintings, and videos. Central to the exhibition is the performance video burn to shine, which creates an overwhelming sensory experience with intense sound and body movements. In collaboration with the French Moroccan choreographer Fouad Boussouf, the work combines traditional rituals from Maghreb, Africa, with contemporary dance. Featuring male and female dancers dancing around a bonfire in an infinite loop, the work festively celebrates and commemorates life, while exploring the boundaries between life and death.
nuns + monks, a series of giant bronze casted sculptures are installed across the Nam June Paik Hall and the outdoor stone garden, encouraging a binary reflection of one’s inner self and the surrounding nature. Standing in the center of the Paik Nam June Pavilion is a monumental 4-meter high sculpture aweing visitors with its solemn atmosphere under natural light, reminiscent of medieval saints.
Meanwhile, the two works on display in the galleries on the first and second floors of the museum—your age and my age and the age of the sun and your age and my age and the age of the moon—are ongoing participatory projects, comprised of over 2,000 drawings by approximately 1,000 children in Wonju. Displayed in identical formats, the two sets of works, each symbolizing the sun and the moon, resonate with each other. Other works include the mattituck series, which depicts the sunset and moonrise; and a series of horse sculptures in blue glass, including beaufort sea and celtic sea. BURN TO SHINE in on view through September 18, 2024.
