2017 The 57th Venice Biennale
The National Pavilion of San Marino
To Have and Have Not：the Solo Exhibition of LEE Kuang-Yu
Date｜5.11 – 11.26
Opening｜5.11   11:00
Venue｜Palazzo Rota Ivancich, Castello (Calle del Rimedio) 4421, Venice, Italy

Curator of San Marino Pavilion｜Mr. Vincenzo SANFO
Academic Chair and Exhibition Consultant｜Dr. Shin-Yi YANG
Supervised by｜Ministry of Culture
Organized by｜Chini Gallery
Supported by｜National Culture and Arts Foundation
Appointed Transportation｜Sunway Express Co., Ltd.

As the Special Project of the San Marino Pavilion of the 57 th Venice Biennale, Lee Kuang-Yu from Taiwan presents his creative works and showcases his artistic achievements during the past 30 years. His new series “Fighting Bull” dedicated to this event and representative works during other periods, in conjunction with documentary, studio archives and outdoor pieces are all part of the exhibition. Lee Kuang-Yu is a success story in the history of sculptures from Taiwan, with his connection and dialogues to the world.

To Have and Have Not conveys two meanings. Firstly, it is the synthesis of Lee Kuang-Yu’s own sculpture aesthetics. Since the 1980s, he has been exploring new spatial relationships in the realm of sculptures. He has developed another type of formal language and aesthetic concept of the “void” that differ from Western sculpture. Lee Kuang-Yu creates the multiple virtual spaces, filled with emotional tensions, with the contrast between fantasy and reality, fullness and emptiness. It is the manifestation of the Oriental aesthetics and philosophy, deep and profound.

Secondly, it is a tribute to the history of the venue. Ernest Hemingway, the wellknown American writer of the Lost Generation, once lived here in the late 1940s and the early 1950s. To Have and Have Not is a title of one of his novels. This exhibition creates with that time period, as our world is becoming uncertain again. In his homage to Ernest Hemingway, Lee Kuang-Yu seeks to depict and reflect the spirituality of our era from a perspective of humanism. It is a response to the theme “Viva Arte Viva” of 2017 Venice Biennale.

 

 Artist :
LEE Kuang-Yu

Kuang-Yu LEE was born in Taiwan in 1954. After receiving an academic education of sculpture in Taiwan in the 1970s, he continued his study in Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, where he studied Western sculptural technique and theory with the renowned sculptor, Francisco Toledo Sanchez. After completing his study, he returned to Taiwan and began teaching at Taipei National University of the Arts and National Taiwan University of Arts until his retirement in 2006. In the history of Taiwanese sculpture, LEE’s work has spanned the cultural and historical dimensions and become a unique cultural presence that marks the unification of Eastern culture and Western modernism. His work successfully combines the rich Taiwanese culture and international diverseness, creating an individualistic sculptural aesthetics and style. With his signature sculptural vocabulary of “openwork,” he opens the enclosed sculptural structure and creates the distinctive form, style, and concept of the “void” while demonstrating a state of “Eastern emptiness” that embodies the unity of the self and object. Therefore, his work is not only aesthetically appealing, but also conveys his contemplation on the present state of life and is informed with contemporary social implication. LEE has been invited for exhibitions in New York, Venice, Spain, Austria, Japan, Singapore, etc. The three major museums in Taiwan, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, have collected multiple works by LEE. His largescale public artworks can also be seen in NTU Hospital MRT Station, Civic Boulevard, and National University of Kaohsiung.


Curator :

Mr. Paolo RONDELLI

Paolo RONDELLI is the official representative of the San Marino Pavilion in the Venice Biennale, and the Ambassador-Permanent Representative of San Marino to UNESCO. He is also Director General of San Marino’s Cultural Institutes that manages the State Museum, the National Archives, the National Library, and the Performing Arts. From 2007 to 2016, RONDELLI served as San Marino’s Ambassador to the United States.

Mr. Vincenzo SANFO

Vincenzo SANFO is the curator of San Marino Pavilion in the 57th Venice Biennale. He is the founder and president of the Cultural Center of Italy (Turin and Rome), and has collaborated with large international art institutions, such as Palazzo Grassi and Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Since 1988, he has been collaborating with the Venice Biennale and Venice Film Festival. He was Chief Editor of Fabbri-Rizzoli’s, which has published more than 300 art books.

Dr. Shinyi YANG

Dr. Shin-Yi YANG  is an international curator and the academic chair and exhibition consultant of this special project of Kuang-Yu LEE. YANG holds a PhD in Art History, Cornell University, and is the consultant to the university’s archive of new media art. He is also the co-producer Chineseness, an art program on the Discovery Channel, and has worked in MoMA and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. He has curated many exhibitions, among which are Research Exhibition on Xu Bing’s Background Story: Dwelling in Fuchun Mountains (Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, 2014), Xu Bing and Children’s Forest Project (National Museum of History, Taipei, 2014), Utopian Village: Sketches, Calligraphy and Paintings by Xu Bing (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2013),  Ingrandimento: A Parallel Exhibition of the 55th Venice Biennial (Palazzo More Cannaregio, Venice, 2013), and Amituofo: A Solo Exhibition by Zhang Huan (The Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, 2010).