The finale of Lee Bae’s solo exhibition, La Maison de la Lune Brûlée (Moonhouse Burning), is set to take place on February 12, 2025, at 5 PM in Cheongdo, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea. This concluding event will mark the completion of a journey that began a year prior in Cheongdo and traveled to the Wilmotte Foundation in Venice as part of the 60th Venice Biennale, before returning to its place of origin.

The exhibition was initially launched on February 24, 2024, with the traditional Korean ritual daljip taeugi, an annual practice performed on the first full moon of the lunar year. This symbolic act of burning a large wooden structure filled with pine branches and wishes for the coming year served as the starting point for the project. The ritual linked Cheongdo and Venice, drawing connections between fire, transformation, and renewal in different cultural contexts.

Following the Biennale’s closure, Lee Bae transported the Brushstroke installation and marouflage paper used in the exhibition back to Korea. For the finale, a small island on Cheongdo Stream will be entirely covered in Brushstroke patterns, mirroring their placement in Venice. Underneath, pine branches, collected wishes, and the very paper that adorned the exhibition walls will be burned together. This act completes the cycle, bringing the journey full circle while transforming the material remnants of the exhibition into a symbolic release.

The event reflects Lee Bae’s long-standing engagement with charcoal, fire, and materiality and highlights his conceptual approach to art as a living process. The act of burning, central to his work, serves as both a destruction and a renewal, reinforcing themes of impermanence and rebirth. Through this ritual, the exhibition dissolves into elemental forces, transcending the boundaries between art, nature, and tradition.

In the lead-up to the event, participants from around the world are invited to contribute their wishes and aspirations. These messages will be inscribed and included in the burning ceremony, uniting voices from across the globe in a shared act of reflection and hope. Submissions will be collected until February 8, 2025, via an online platform.

This conclusion of La Maison de la Lune Brûlée not only signifies the end of an exhibition but also embodies the cyclical nature of artistic creation and cultural exchange. By incorporating a deeply rooted Korean tradition into an international contemporary art discourse, Lee Bae bridges past and present, locality and globality, material and immaterial.
 

Sayart / Maria Kim, sayart2022@gmail.com