Artists

Mire Lee

Press release

Mire Lee’s work occupies a visceral space where the boundaries of machine, body, and psyche collapse into each other. In her kinetic sculptures, which are often made using motors, silicone, steel, and lubricants she constructs organisms that are as tender as they are grotesque. These forms move in a convulsive, almost breathlike rhythm, suggesting the uneasy vitality of something alive; both animate and alien. Mire Lee’s practice does not seek to replicate the image of the human body, but to expose its internal logic, its functions, breakdowns, and the systems it interfaces with. In doing so, she evokes not only the raw physicality of flesh and machinery, but also vulnerability, violence, and desire. Mire Lee’s installations often generate a discomfort that could be described as affective. They invite focused attention without promising resolution. The spaces she constructs are conditions of exposure, humid and ruinous. In these works, movement becomes more than kinetics; it becomes a language of survival, of being-in-repair. Mire Lee’s practice reminds us of vulnerability: a mode of relation, that persists in duration, leakage, and proximity. Mire Lee’s solo exhibition is presented simultaneously at Secession and the Korean Cultural Center Austria. The presentation at the Korean Cultural Center, under the title Women I loved 내가 사랑한 여자들, includes a selection of the artist’s film works and is open to the public Tuesday – Sunday, 12 pm – 6 pm. Fragments of the exhibition at Secession will become part of a site-responsive work at Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, later in 2026. The exhibition has been made possible by the Samsung Foundation of Culture. The accompanying publication is funded by the Korean Cultural Center Austria. Additional support has been provided by the Arts Council Korea and the Mondriaan Fund. Secession would like to thank a circle of supporters who have generously committed to this exhibition: Sprüth Magers, Tina Kim Gallery, Kursawe Foitzik Hohlweg Rechtsanwälte, Yurica Eun Hee Jeong, Changro Im (President of Euroscope), Sobang Yoo (Chief Executive Officer SBU & Partners), Callie’s, and Palfinger AG. Mire Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988 and lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Seoul, South Korea. Programmed by the board of the Secession Curated by Haris Giannouras