British visual artist and stage designer Es Devlin is presenting her first solo exhibition in Korea at FUTURA SEOUL in Jongno District.
Titled “3rd Poem: Es Devlin, Come Home Again,” the exhibition opened on Aug. 20 and will run through Jan. 17, 2027. It examines ideas of presence and collective experience through installations incorporating books, mirrors, moving images, light and sound.
Devlin began her career designing opera and theatre productions, including work at the Royal Opera House. She later created stages for musicians including U2, Beyoncé, Adele, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd. Her projects also include the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show.
The exhibition begins with “Infinite Library,” a small library containing shelves of inverted books. Drawings and moving images are projected across the shelves before the screen opens and allows visitors to enter “Mirror Maze.”
Formed with mirror glass, LED lighting and sound, “Mirror Maze” repeatedly reflects each visitor alongside other people occupying the same space.
At the centre of the exhibition is a new Seoul version of “Come Home Again.” The five-by-three-metre installation brings together species found in London and Seoul through painted forms, light, spoken voices and choral recordings. It develops a project first presented outside Tate Modern in London in 2022.
“Screenshare” uses images drawn from sketchbooks accumulated over approximately 35 years to form an 11.6-metre-wide screen. The drawings include studies for past projects, images of the artist’s family and depictions of species found in London. Visitors are invited to take away one drawing after viewing the work.
“Line of Light” combines water, strobe lighting and sound, connecting artificial light inside the building with the changing natural light outside. In “Collective Portrait,” visitors draw strangers seated across from them and leave the portraits in the gallery. The installation changes as the drawings accumulate during the exhibition.
Speaking in Seoul before the opening, Devlin described an audience as a temporary community formed by people sharing the same space and time. She also said that artificial intelligence may expand the scale and reach of artistic production but cannot replace an embodied encounter between people.
The exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, and until 7 p.m. on Saturday. FUTURA SEOUL is closed on Mondays.
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