“Sculpture in the Courtyard”, another project forming part of the Hermitage 20/21 programme, is presenting the work The Cane of Titan by the Korean artist Lee Ufan.
On 14 March 2016, the day before the official opening of the exhibition, St Petersburg students, artists, critics and museum specialists were able to acquaint themselves with the piece. That same day the Department of Contemporary Art and the Hermitage’s Youth Centre also organized a meeting with the artist, who is known not only in Japan, where he lives permanently, but also in Europe and the USA, where he is a frequent visitor. The format chosen for the meeting was a dialogue between Lee Ufan and Dmitry Ozerkov, the head of the State Hermitage’s Department of Contemporary Art.
Lee Ufan became fascinated in his youth by the Russian classics Gogol and Dostoyevsky and he spoke about how strongly his formation as an artist and philosopher was influenced by that literature and its interest in the human soul. Thus the main stimulus for his work became the desire to help people “reflect on eternal values” more often. In doing so, Lee Ufan believes, the creator himself, without being an “absolute” (as he puts it) genius, creates a definite “route” to the perception of art that demands a profound philosophical penetration into its essence. Not coincidentally, the sculpture The Cane of Titan, exhibited last year in the gardens of Versailles, is for all its outward simplicity extremely multifaceted and meditative. Its second title is Rest. The Staff of Reason. The rock in this sculpture symbolizes the power of nature; the cane is a product of industrial manufacturing. Together they are always in contradiction that can be overcome by the power of reason and feeling. Lee Ufan thus seeks a harmonious combination and balance between the human being and “overloaded” consumer society.
Drawing the audience’s attention to the displaying of this same work at Versailles, Dmitry Ozerkov asked the artist about the influence that each setting has on it. Lee Ufan confirmed that the location is of exceptional importance for how the sculpture is perceived, stressing that “in the Hermitage courtyard The Cane of Titan looks like an intimate piece next to the fountain and trees, while in the open space of the main alley at Versailles it could be viewed well from different points and produced a more monumental impression.”
Undoubtedly the main element of Lee Ufan’s art is the idea of harmony and harmonization. The artist repeatedly emphasized during the meeting the importance of a “calm” atmosphere around the sculpture that helps create the necessary contemplative “pause” for the free flow of thoughts in a person that stops in front of it.
