“我想我不应该对艺术抱有过高的期待。艺术就像水面上的蒸汽，在阳光里变成彩虹，消散在风中，穿过地铁隧道，在站台上候车的人们中间稍事停留，在人们手握茶杯的指缝间闪烁，继而消失无影踪。然而即便如此，我也无法放弃艺术。作为一个在清晨的操场中央弯腰画下一个圆圈，或是用湿抹布擦拭一面落满灰尘的镜子的人，我望着艺术，看着它退却至房间的天花板上，在这个房间里，地板正在开裂，所有家具都在下沉。” ——李健镛，《艺术家的笔记》，1995年 “I believe that I should not expect much from art. Art rises as steam on the surface of water, makes a rainbow in the sun, disappears into the wind, and passes through the subway tunnel to stay amidst people waiting in the platform and sparkle in between their fingers holding a tea cup to disappear. However, I cannot give up art either. As the person who stands in the middle of a big playground and bs over early in the morning to draw a circle or who wipes a dusted mirror with a wet rag, I look at the art that has evacuated to the ceiling in the room where the floor is cracking up and all furnishings are sinking.” ——Lee Kun-Yong，Artist’s Note，1995 李健镛 佩斯北京 2022年7月15日至9月01日 佩斯画廊北京空间将为韩国艺术家李健镛举办他在中国的首次个展。李健镛是韩国前卫艺术团体“空间与时间”（ST）的创始人、“韩国前卫艺术协会”（AG）的领军人物，他在上世纪六七十年代以简洁而发人深省的行为表演作品为彼时在观念与政策上腹背受困的韩国前卫艺术运动注入精神力量，被誉为“韩国行为艺术之父”。此次展览将以超过40件作品回顾这位观念艺术先锋近50年的创作实践，作品涵盖绘画、雕塑、影像及特定场域装置等。展览将于7月14日下午3点举办开幕预览及艺术家特邀对谈，并于4点向公众开幕。 以阿伦·卡普罗1958年极富远见的文章《杰克逊·波洛克的遗产》为起点，日常生活已毫无保留地向新一代艺术家敞开了自己。而李健镛无疑也是这份珍贵遗产的继承者之一。他曾于1975年后的五年间连续创作了约五十个行为事件性作品。这些作品均由日常生活的基本元素构成，并通过在不同场合中重复进行表演，令事件的核心得以从中显现。在李健镛的早期代表作《吃饼干》中，艺术家端坐于桌前，将桌面上的饼干放入口中，但他每吃下一块，都会在手臂上捆绑一节夹板。随着手腕、手肘乃至肩膀等关节部位依次被夹板固定而无法弯曲，艺术家将饼干放入口中的企图将越来越难以实现。以贝克特式的简练，李健镛的作品直观地向公众展示了受到限制的日常生活将可能陷入何种困境。在彼时韩国饱受争议的政治背景下，这一系列行为毫不意外地引发了共鸣，并很快借助影像被传播甚至模仿。而李的可贵之处在于，他从未强化过这一可能为他带来更多声望的“社会活动家”的角色，甚至反对做过于政治化的解读，以保护作品的开放性。对他而言，事件仅体现为事件本身，而事件的意义则动态地显现于“我”与“他人”体验的相互作用之中——他甚至曾在表演结束后将作品的“步骤图示”发放给现场的观众，鼓励他们以自己的方式在家复现，从而将作品的主权彻底开放为公有。 《吃饼干》于1975年10月在韩国国立现代美术馆首次实施，与它同场表演的作品《数岁》则展现出理解李健镛创作的另一条线索：艺术家从“1”开始，与音箱中播放的报数声同步地顺序报出数字，并在报到自己的岁数时停止，而音箱中事先录制的报数声则继续播放下去。如果说前者以自身为绝对尺度，关照个体生命的自由与限制，后者则将生命投入到世界的召唤之中，并通过以个体的标尺与世界的刻度相并置，去完成彼此的相互印证。两个月后，李健镛创作出了代表作《地点的逻辑》，将《数岁》中初现端倪的世界观更为精确地表现出来：他在地上画下一个圆，用手指向它并大声喊出“那里！”随后走入圆心，指向脚下喊出“这里！”继而一步跨出，指向落在身后的圆再喊：“那里！”最后沿圆周线走上一圈，持续念出：“哪里，哪里，哪里。”并慢慢走出观众的视线。在这段“禅机”般简洁而生动的行为表演中，艺术家口中的指示代词既回应了西方的哲学沉思（梅洛-庞蒂：“一定要有‘这里’，那里才会有‘那里’。”）；也应和了东方的辩证思考（庄子：“彼出于是，是亦因彼。”）。与此同时，伴随着艺术家咄咄逼人的手势与喊声，观众也被强行卷入这场行为表演之中，原本置身事外的单纯观看行为被“同时在场”这一无可争辩的事实所破坏，最终，在表演者与观众各自的时空及经验维度中，世界与身体的关系将重新得到感知与确认。 李健镛的日常行为表演在第二年引入了绘画——或者更确切地说，他将“绘画”这一动作放入了一系列的身体动作之中。以他标志性的作品《身体描绘76-1》为例，艺术家选取一块等身长的木板，并从木板背后伸出手臂，艰难地将画笔划到木板的正面，并在凭感觉划满手能触及的区域后，将涂满的部分锯掉，然后重复前述步骤。随着木板被不断地被锯短，手臂能触及到的区域越来越大，涂画的行为也越来越自如，在整个木板均被涂满后，艺术家按倒序将所有部分重新摞起，复原出与自己等高的“画作”。这一系列作品在最初曾被命名为“身体的画像”，借助颜料在木板表面留下的痕迹，李健镛以自己的方式创作“具象”行动绘画。在后续作品中，艺术家背靠在画布上，尽可能地深展手臂，沿自身轮廓在身后的画布上涂满射线状的线条；或是以肩膀为轴心，记录下双臂自然摆动的轨迹。在某种意义上，当李健镛选取身体进行创作时，身体就成为了解开一切谜题的钥匙。正如他此前所言，正是以身体为中介，生命内部的体验得以与外部世界相连通。在他有意设置的种种条件或限制下，身体通过最基本的行为动作探索自身的尺度，并在行动中绘下身体的“自画像”。 “我想我不应该对艺术抱有过高的期待。艺术就像水面上的蒸汽，在阳光里变成彩虹，消散在风中，穿过地铁隧道，在站台上候车的人们中间稍事停留，在人们手握茶杯的指缝间闪烁，继而消失无影踪。”李健镛曾在《艺术家的笔记》一文中如是说，并以他的整个艺术生涯回应了卡普罗在《杰克逊·波洛克的遗产》中所做的预言。正如卡普罗所期待的，新一代的艺术家将成为时代的炼金术士，为我们从平凡事物中召唤平凡自身的意义。在文章发表的整整六十年后，通过一位来自邻国的谦逊的实践者，我们将有机会重新确认这一预言的价值所在。 关于艺术家 李健镛1942年出生于朝鲜黄海道，在朝鲜战争期间随家人来到韩国，并于1963年进入韩国最负盛名的艺术学院首尔弘益大学美术系学习西方绘画。在艺术及社会思潮不断涌现的六十年代，李健镛积极参与到韩国前卫艺术的萌芽生态之中，对学院式的官方主流画派进行反思与颠覆。1969年，他与朋友创办了艺术团体“空间与时间”（ST），并同时成为“韩国前卫艺术协会”（AG）的领军艺术家之一。在创作了一系列事件性的特定场域装置后，李健镛以巴黎双年展为契机，开始构思以自己的身体创作艺术作品，并于1979年圣保罗双年展上赢得国际声誉。他以一系列简洁而引人深思的行为表演作品为韩国前卫艺术运动带来了革新性的力量，奠定了他在韩国前卫艺术中的关键地位。李健镛现生活并工作于韩国群山市，任国立群山大学荣誉教授。 作品信息 Work Captions 版权信息请标注： 中文 ⓒ Lee Kun-Yong, 佩斯北京供图 英文 ⓒ Lee Kun-Yong, courtest of Pace Gallery 1 李健镛 地点的逻辑 1975 照片 51.3 x 61 cm（单张） Lee Kun-Yong Logic of Place 1975 C-print 51.3 x 61 cm(each) 2 李健镛 身体描绘 76-1 1976 照片 20.4 x 30.3 cm (单张) Lee Kun-Yong The Method of Drawing 76-1 1976 C-print 20.4 x 30.3 cm (each) 3 李健镛 身体描绘 76-3-2022 2022 照片，布面丙烯 130.3 x 162.2 cm Lee Kun-Yong The Method of Drawing 76-3-2022 2022 Photo, Acrylic on canvas 130.3 x 162.2 cm 4 李健镛 身体描绘 76-1-2022 2022 布面铅笔，丙烯 171 x 151 cm Lee Kun-Yong Bodyscape 76-1-2022 2022 Pencil, Acrylic on canvas 171 x 151 cm 5 李健镛 瀑布－地点的逻辑 1995-97 照片，布面丙烯 130.5 x 81 cm Lee Kun-Yong Waterfall-Logic of Place 1995-97 Photo, Acrylic on canvas 130.5 x 81 cm 6 李健镛 身体描绘 76-4 2022 布面铅笔，丙烯 91 x 116.7 cm Lee Kun-Yong The Method of Drawing 76-4 2022 Pencil, Acrylic on canvas 91 x 116.7 cm 7 李健镛 身体描绘 76-2-2011 2011~2014 照片，布面丙烯 260 x 194 cm Lee Kun-Yong The Method of Drawing 76-2-2011 2011~2014 Photo, Acrylic on canvas 260 x 194 cm 8 李健镛 李健镛与约瑟夫博伊斯，身体项（男）与阿拉伯女人 1988 纸上粉笔，丙烯 78.5 x 108 cm Lee Kun-Yong Lee Kun-Yong & Joseph Beuys, Corporal term (Man) and Arabia Woman 1988 Conte, Acrylic on paper 78.5 x 108 cm Lee Kun-Yong Pace Beijing Jul 15, 2022- Sep 01, 2022 Pace Beijing will hold Korean artist Lee Kun-Yongs first solo exhibition in China. Lee Kun-Yong is a founder of the Korean avant-garde art group Space and Time (ST), and a leading figure of the group Avant-Garde Association (AG). In the 1960s and 70s, his simple, thought-provoking performance art pieces infused new spiritual energy into a Korean avant-garde art movement then beleaguered on both conceptual and political fronts, and he is called the “father of Korean performance art.” This exhibition will look back on nearly fifty years of the artist’s creative practice through more than forty artworks in the mediums of painting, sculpture, video, and site- specific installation. The exhibition will begin with a preview and artist discussion at 3pm on July 14, and open to the public at 4pm. Beginning with Allan Kaprows prophetic 1958 essay The Legacy of Jackson Pollock, everyday life has laid itself bare for artists. Lee Kun-Yong is doubtless one of the inheritors of this precious legacy. Over a period of five years beginning in 1975, he created roughly fifty performance actions. These works are composed from the basic elements of everyday life, and through repeated performances in various occasion, break the symptomatic “camouflage” of single performance and allow the core of the happening to emerge. In an early representative work, Eating Biscuits, Lee Kun-Yong sat upright in front of a table laid with biscuits, each time he ate a biscuit, he would attach a splint to his arm. As the various joints in his arm were fixed in place and prevented from bing, the artist had increasing difficulty successfully eating each biscuit. With a simplicity reminiscent of Samuel Beckett, Lee Kun-Yongs artwork directly demonstrated to the audience the kind of predicament to which a limited everyday life can lead. In the repressive political atmosphere of Korea at the time, this series of performances unsurprisingly struck a deep chord, and was quickly disseminated through photography, and even imitated. What’s invaluable of Lee is that he has never emphasized his role as “social activist,” even though it perhaps would have heightened his fame. He has even opposed overly political interpretations of his artworks in order to preserve their openness. For him, the event only manifests as the event itself, while the meaning of the event emerges within the dynamic interplay of the experiences of “I” and “others.” He even once handed out a step-by-step manual to the audiences after a performance and encouraged them to reproduce the performance at home in their own way, thus making the artwork’s authorship open to the public thoroughly. Eating Biscuits was first performed at the MMCA Seoul in October 1975. Age Counting, shown at the same exhibition, provides another thread for understanding Lee Kun-Yongs creations: beginning with one, the artist counted along to the numbers coming from a speaker, stopping when it reached his age, while the speaker itself kept counting. If the former artwork treated the artist’s own life as an absolute measure of freedom and limitation in inpidual life, the latter expanded to the external world, by way of juxtaposing inpidual gradations and the gauge of the world to project the physical world into a call out into the world and mutual affirmation. Two months later, Lee Kun-Yong created the representative work Logic of Place, which conveyed the worldview glimpsed in Age Counting in a more precise manner: he drew a circle on the ground, then pointed at it, shouting, “there!” He then stepped inside the circle, pointed at his feet, and shouted, “here!” He then stepped out again, pointed back at the circle, and shouted, “there!” Finally, he walked along the circumference of the circle while shouting, “where, where, where” as he gradually disappeared from the audiences view. In this Zen-like simple and vivid performance action, the artists words echo Western philosophical meditations (Maurice Merleau-Ponty: “There has to be ‘here,’ so there can be ‘there’”) as well as Eastern dialectics (Chuang-tzu: “Other comes out from It, It too adapts to Other”). Meanwhile, the artist’s aggressive gestures and shouts forcibly drew the audience into the performance, the once innocent, removed act of viewing destroyed by the incontrovertible fact of the simultaneous presence. In the , in the dimensions of the experience of time and space in the performer and each audience member, the relationship between the world and the body is perceived and reaffirmed. A year later, Lee Kun-Yongs everyday performances began to incorporate painting, or, to be more precise, he inserted the act of painting into a series of body motions. In the landmark work Body Drawing 76-01, the artist selected a wood board the same height as himself, and exted his arm around from behind to draw on the front of the board with great difficulty. Once he felt he had drawn on all the surfaces he could physically reach, he sawed off those sections and repeated his initial steps. As the board was continually cut short, the area his hand was able to reach grew larger, and the act of drawing grew increasingly natural. Once the entire board was evenly filled, the artist reattached the pieces in order, restoring this life-sized “painting.” This series of works was originally titled “body representation.” Using the traces left on the board, Lee Kun-Yong created “figurative” action paintings in his own way. In the works that followed, the artist would lean back against a canvas, and attempt to stretch his arms behind him and fill in an outline around his body, or use his shoulders as an axis to record the traces of his arms’ rotation. In a sense, when Lee Kun-Yong chooses to use his body for creation, the body becomes the key to unlocking every secret. As he has stated before, when the body serves as medium, the inner experience of life becomes connected to the external world. Under the various conditions and limits the artist has set, the body explores its own dimensions through the most basic actions and behaviors, painting a “self-portrait” in the process. In the essay Artist’s Note, Lee Kun-Yong wrote, “I believe that I should not expect much from art. Art rises as steam on the surface of water, makes a rainbow in the sun, disappears into the wind, and passes through the subway tunnel to stay amidst people waiting in the platform and sparkle in between their fingers holding a tea cup to disappear.” With his entire artistic career, he has responded to the prophecy Kaprow laid out in The Legacy of Jackson Pollock. Just as Kaprow had hoped, a new generation of artists are becoming the alchemists of their eras, summoning the significance of the ordinary within ordinary things. Sixty years after that essays release, we find, in the person of a humble practitioner from a neighboring country, a new opportunity to affirm the value of that prophecy. About the artist Lee Kun-Yong was born in 1942 in Hwanghai-do. During the Korean War, he came to Korea with his family. He studied Western painting at the Department of Fine Arts of Seoul Hongik University, the most prestigious art school in Korea. In the 1960s, when art and social thoughts continued to emerge, Lee Kun-Yong actively participated in criticizing toward the tency of the art world at the time, the emergence of new Western art forms and paradigms. In 1969, he founded the art group Space and Time (ST) with his fris and became one of the leading artists of a Korean art association, Avant-garde (AG). After creating a series of event-specific installation, Lee Kun-Yong took the Paris Biennale as an opportunity to start conceiving art with his own body. A series of concise and provoking performances brought innovation to the Korean avant-garde art movement. The 1979 Sao Paulo Biennale had gained him an acknowledgment as one of the critical figures of 1970’s Korean art. Lee Kun-Yong currently lives and works in Kunsan, South Korea, and is an honorary professor at the National Kunsan University. For more information please contact: pr@pacebeijing.com