Lee Ufan’s major solo exhibition, Relatum: Lee Ufan, is currently on view at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, the historic city in Provence, southern France. Presented at the invitation of the Avignon Council, the exhibition brings together the artist’s signature paintings and installations against the backdrop of the UNESCO World Heritage site, once the residence of the 14th-century popes and the world’s largest Gothic palace. The exhibition takes on added significance as it coincides with the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and France, as well as the 80th Festival d’Avignon, which has selected Korean as its guest language.

Lee Ufan was born in Korea, moved to Japan at the age of twenty, and has since worked between Japan, France, and the United States. Since establishing his atelier in Montmartre, Paris, in the 1980s, Lee has maintained a close connection with France. Over the years, Lee held the solo exhibition Dissonance in Arles in 2013, followed by solo exhibitions at the Palace of Versailles in 2014, the Centre Pompidou-Metz in 2019, and Les Alyscamps in 2021. In 2022, the artist opened Lee Ufan Arles in southern France, presenting permanent installations that encompass his artistic practice along with two other museums in Naoshima in Japan and Busan in Korea, while reflecting the long and deep connection Lee has with Provence.

The concept of Relatum, which the exhibition is named after, captures the artistic philosophy Lee has developed in exploring the relationship between people and objects, and between an artwork and its space. The artist mediates the poetic encounter between natural materials such as stone and man-made materials such as steel and aluminum, drawing out the invisible dialogue between a work and the surrounding space and environment. Visitors come face to face with a large-scale installation of over sixty tons of expertly placed slate upon entering the Grande Chapelle, the largest hall in the Palais. The piece has previously been exhibited in spiritual settings such as the Couvent de la Tourette by Le Corbusier and Les Alyscamps, and here it resonates with the Gothic architecture, taking on another architectural narrative and sacred dimension. As the artist has said, "I always start from the space. And from that space, I look for a dialogue."

Lee Ufan has also designed three pieces especially for the exhibition, conceived for specific settings in the Cloître Benoît XII, the Cuisine Haute, and the Chapelle Saint-Martial. The work standing in the Cloître Benoît XII is composed of steel and a line forming a perfect circle, creating tension in contrast with the angular Gothic architecture. The Grand Tinel hosts several paintings, including works from the Response series. Having continued to present major solo exhibitions this year at leading institutions including SMAC Venice (San Marco Art Centre) and Dia Beacon, New York, Lee has said of the Avignon exhibition that he seeks "to create a moment in which we feel the breath of the infinite."