Mire Lee, Horizontal Forms (detail), 2020. Photo Yonje Kim
Mire Lee / Look, I’m a fountain…
May 20 – Sep 4, 2022
Museum MMK Für Moderne Kunst
Frankfurt, Germany

Tubes, chains, and wires seem to resemble organic contraptions as they loop, glide, and snake around and into each other. These appliances are stiff or pliable when tension is applied, moving slowly yet fitfully. The water, oil, and grime flowing all around emphasizes the angular rigidity of the metal, while the plastic takes on a blurred appearance.

In a pretechnological sense, Mire Lee’s installations in Look, I’m a fountain of filth raving mad with love, recall a utopian horror that we seem to have long since rendered obsolete; they come across as humane in a way that contrasts with the cold, clean, digital technologies of the present day. People are more absent than ever in the face of these digital technologies, which makes the way they function even more brutal and inhuman. While the industrial nightmare seems increasingly to have faded out of sight in the West, it has become ever more ubiquitous in the Southern Hemisphere.

South Korean artist Mire Lee (b. 1988) is the recipient of the PONTOPREIS MMK 2022. In conjunction with the Museum MMK Für Moderne Kunst, the Jürgen Ponto-Stiftung zur Förderung junger Künstler will henceforth award the PONTOPREIS MMK every two years. This augments a partnership that has existed since 2007, with a particular emphasis placed on supporting artists directly. The prize includes a solo exhibition at ZOLLAMT MMK and an accompanying publication, as well as an endowment of 10,000 euros. In 2021, the jury consisted of Daniel Birnbaum (artistic director of Acute Art), Ulrike Groos (director of Kunstmuseum Stuttgart), and Susanne Pfeffer (director of Museum MMK Für Moderne Kunst).

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS & EVENTS
  • Contradictions 1
    Sep 16 – Oct 6, 2023
    Jergon
    Berlin, Germany

    Jergon is thrilled to announce the opening of the next exhibition, Contradictions 1, showcasing the talent of eight Berlin based artists. This exhibition is the result of a selection process through a call for artists that was launched a few months ago. The curatorial work in cooperation with the artists have creatively and innovatively tackled the theme of Contradictions. (more…)

  • Cécile Lempert: so fragile a thing
    Sep 14 – Oct 28, 2023
    Efremidis
    Seoul, South Korea

    Cécile Lempert’s paintings evoke a cinematic world of ambiguities, shifting between the tender and loving to the violent and eerie. Lempert’s first solo presentation with Efremidis oscillates between images of tactile proximity and emotional distance. Selecting imagery from a personal archive of film stills, family snapshots and borrowed details of European masters, she depicts moments of intimate or invasive touch, while looming close-ups capture the murmuring of a mind behind the closed door of a face. (more…)