In 2010, the Lee Ufan Museum on the Japanese island of Naoshima was inaugurated. It was followed by the Lee Ufan Space at the Busan Museum of Art (2015) in South Korea. A stunning new museum in Arles located in the South of France, is the first permanent European exhibition space dedicated to the artist.

The city of Van Gogh, Christian Lacroix, LUMA Foundation and Actes Sud welcomed Lee Ufan’s Foundation and opened its beautiful doors in Hotel Vernon, in April this year. “I am especially charmed by the city’s perfume where time fades away amidst the treasures of Roman culture,“ Lee Ufan said about this iconic town.

Exploring a visual language based on an amalgamation of Eastern and Western aesthetics and philosophy, Lee Ufan’s works emphasise the passage of time, poetry and human’s relationships to nature in works spanning the wide range of media including installations, paintings, ceramics, drawings and works on paper. The leading figure of the Mono-ha movement has published over seventeen books throughout the course of his career, with poetry, art history, philosophy, and criticism, including his essay From Object to Being (1969), for which he received a prize for critical writing.

Designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, Arles was chosen by the Korean-Japanese artist following another earlier show titled “Dissonance,” which led to the publication by Actes Sud of his first monograph in French and other spectacular presentations at the Château de Versailles (2014) and the Centre Pompidou Metz (2019). France, to say it bluntly, has always embraced Lee Ufan’s work.

At Lee Ufan Arles, the four-story hôtel particulier consists of nearly 25 rooms, with a charming entrance to the ticket office and shop, traditional Provencal tiles, a grand staircase to the first floor temporary exhibition floor, an elegant library and café, designed by award-winning French designer Constance Guisset.

In the first gallery, which once likely served as the guest entrance for the Dervieux family, stands at the center a monumental concrete cylinder that is a narrow snail-shaped labyrinth designed by Tadao Ando in his landmark concrete panels. Inside lies a floor projection of white clouds slowly moving through the air. “Like van Gogh before him, Lee Ufan was very much inspired by the Arlesian sky,” said Jean-Marie Gallais, curator of the 2019 Lee Ufan show at the Centre Pompidou Metz.

While the exhibition presented on the first floor mostly focusing on his From Line, From Point, From Wind and recent series might rotate, the ground floor features dramatic installations including several works from his Relatum series.

In parallel to the new foundation, the artist who was also invited to Arles’ 40 years as a UNESCO World Heritage site is featured in the gardens of the 4th-century Alyscamps necropolis, a placed imbued with mystery and history. This outdoor display remains on view until September. Gucci recently presented one of their most legendary catwalks at Les Alyscamps.

“The moments of my morning walks gazing at the sky along the quays of the Rhone make me feel happy.” concludes Lee Ufan about his recently-opened experiences in the South of France. The Foundation in Arles is a spectacular addition to the area’s and city’s rich cultural landscapes.

Images: Installation views of Lee Ufan Arles, 2022.©ADAGP, LEE UFAN; PHOTO: ARCHIVES KAMEL MENNOUR; COURTESY THE ARTIST AND KAMEL MENNOUR, PARIS