Lee Ufan's Minimalist Dialogue with Le Corbusier's Couvent de La Tourette

Lee Ufan, the 81-year-old Korean founder of the Mono-ha movement, has mounted a site-specific exhibition at Le Corbusier's Couvent de La Tourette in Éveux, France, as a collateral event of the Lyon Biennale, running until December 20, 2017. Initially daunted by the unconventional space, Ufan decided to let his installations engage with the surrounding valley, creating a dialogue between interior and exterior. The exhibition includes works such as Relatum ‒ Home, where paper rolls are held by large stones, and Relatum ‒ Room, featuring a single stone honored by a paper screen. The most successful piece, Relatum ‒ Dwelling, inverts inside and outside with a sloping stone floor that draws the eye to the panoramic view. Paintings in the refectory and chapter house are less effective, but two works in the church are highlights: a painting on the back wall dominates the space, while a rainbow-like painted mark on a bed of small stones on the floor is paradoxically monumental. Ufan's minimalist style, rooted in Mono-ha philosophy, proves more convincing than Anish Kapoor's 2015 exhibition at the same venue.