Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône). It is an unexpected parallel which is offered at the Vernon hotel, where Lee Ufan opened an exhibition site in 2022, “Lee Ufan Arles”. “At Conversation Piece” establishes a dialogue between his work and that of Michelangelo Pistoletto. The two artists (born in 1936 respectively in South Korea and in 1933 in Italy) are contemporary. But no prior affinity presided over this rapprochement. If a friendship has linked Lee Ufan to another of his Western counterparts, Richard Serra (1938-2024)-and how not to think about it by looking at Korean’s sculpture, The internshipfrom the series “Relatum”, composed of a curved steel plate and a stone -, its meeting with Pistoletto is recent. Their works are sometimes shown in the same clashes, this will be the case this fall during the “Minimal” exhibition at the Trade-Pinault Collection Stock Exchange. But the protagonist of the Arte Povera and the mono-ha theorist did not really exchange for the first time that during the animated debate this summer at the Vernon hotel by Emma Lavigne, general manager and conservative of Pinault Collection. “Setting up a dialogue between two artists is always a delicate company”written in the text of the booklet, Commissioner Erik Verhagen, called in reinforcement, who underlines how much he can reveal himself “Perilous” to want to establish bridges between movements that appeared concomitantly.
From the start of the route, the risk of the misunderstanding is in fact watching. L’Etruscoa flagship pistoletto piece, according to the Etruscan statue of theSpeaker Dating from the beginning of the 1st century BC, placed in front of a mirror, points the index to a perspective in which the spectator is reflected. A few meters higher, a terracotta plate carries the imprint of Lee Ufan: on this tender clay surface before being frozen, a finger placed its seal. Each of the works poses the question of the creative gesture and the relationship to matter, but what do you gain to compare them formally?
A formal analogy lending to confusion
Further on, the graphic interlacing of Io, you, no [voir ill.]from Pistoletto, take up the mathematical sign of the infinity which has become the symbol of the “third paradise”, the central theme of his work since the early 2000s and of which he manifested. Vis-à-vis, two rocks posed by Lee Ufan on a white gravel bed, their shadows redoubled by painted circles, draw a joint relational space, Tenu interstice (Relatum – Access2022, [voir ill.]). The intertwined circular forms of each of these works suggest an analogy, but it would undoubtedly constitute a misinterpretation. How could it be otherwise? When the art of Pistoletto summons Michelangelo and a whole culture of the image, Lee Ufan expresses the breath contained in a line and evokes the body at work. The permanent journey of the Lee Ufan collection, designed according to a refined scenography, leaves little room anyway to another presence. Already, a large number of visitors disrupts its experience, then the work of another artist! …
A floor has been reserved for screen printing on a pistoletto mirror (we also see a superb self -portrait of the back [Uomo grigio di schiena, 1961]), as if this brand guest was kept away for his own comfort – or that of his host? Despite the presence of remarkable pieces of the two artists, the visitor comes out of the exhibition with the feeling of a conversation that would have turned short.
