Mire Lee's 'The Heart of My Machine is Golden Lead' at Secession, Vienna
Mire Lee's exhibition, titled 'The Heart of My Machine is Golden Lead,' is on display at Secession in Vienna from June 26 to August 26, 2026. This showcase includes machines that intentionally induce systemic failures while generating thick liquids. A dilapidated cement mixer operates above a pool of red pigment, leaving painterly marks every seven minutes. The installation features a partially removed ceiling and incorporates vintage advertising banners with poetic excerpts in Korean, German, and English, alluding to Kim Eon-Hee and Klimt's Beethoven Frieze. Additionally, the Korean Cultural Center presents Lee's films 'Women I Loved,' which includes Faces (2016), Sleeping Mom (2020), and Veronica Moser (2022), examining the hidden nature of institutional labor in modern art. Noit Banai's review emphasizes the conflict between the machines and the institutional framework.
Key facts
- Mire Lee's solo exhibition 'The Heart of My Machine is Golden Lead' is held at Secession, Vienna, from June 26 to August 26, 2026.
- The exhibition spans two venues: Secession and the Korean Cultural Center in Vienna.
- At Secession, a rusty cement mixer is placed on wooden beams over a pool of red, gold-streaked pigment.
- The installation includes a sloped metal panel with sprinklers that release fluid every seven minutes, creating painterly traces.
- Lee incorporated old advertising banners from previous Secession exhibitions, with poetic fragments in Korean, German, and English, including work by Korean poet Kim Eon-Hee.
- The banners reference Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze (1901–02), housed in the same building.
- The second venue, the Korean Cultural Center, shows Lee's moving-image works: Faces (2016), Sleeping Mom (2020), and Veronica Moser (2022), under the title 'Women I Loved.'
- The review is by Noit Banai, an art historian and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Entities
Artists
- Mire Lee
- Gustav Klimt
- Kim Eon-Hee
- Veronica Moser
- Noit Banai
Institutions
- Secession
- Korean Cultural Center
- Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Locations
- Vienna
- Austria