Residual Memories, 2026 – Jeewi Lee x Phillip C. Reiner

"Residual Memories" is a solo exhibition in the entrance hall of the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, from 11 September 2026 to 5 April 2027. It is presented in the context of the GASAG Art Prize 2026 (GASAG Kunstpreis), for which Lee is the recipient. Sand is the subject: an indispensable raw material for concrete, glass and microchips whose usable deposits are shrinking worldwide. The installation transforms the hall into a dystopian yet meditative space recalling the design of Asian gardens.

Nine paintings from the series "Field of Fragments" are mixed media and sand on canvas and wood. The colours are not freely chosen; they derive from the natural pigmentation of sand Lee collected in coastal regions where she spent time, and the titles name the sites: Wilhelmshaven, Connecticut, three Alentejo works, Busan, Taean Bando, Lucca and Mallorca. The paintings read as archives linking place, personal memory and geological process.

Thirteen sculptures from the series "Fragments", made in collaboration with Phillip C. Reiner, each precisely replicate a single grain enlarged up to several thousand times, and the titles point to the find site: Son Real, Suedstrand, Taean-Bando, Akwidaa, Dadaepo, Forgia-Vecchia, Fort Tilden, Popenguine. They rest on colourfully shimmering sheets of glass embedded in islands of sand. A floor work, Sediment (2026), also made with Reiner, lays sand and mixed media on dichroic float glass, its islands mapping successive layers of a CT scan of a grain from Mallorca. Inner Monologue (2026), in collaboration with Reiner, is a 1-channel, 90-min loop video projecting the interiors of the grains: raw scan data decomposed into successive cross-sections showing density and an interpretation of the composition depending on origin. Conceded Decay (2026) hangs used dust-protection nets, cable ties and wire from the ceiling; a deserted building site, and wind and waves as natural dispersal agents for sand.

Ourglass (2026), a 60-minute, 6-channel sound installation by composer Jared Meier-Klodt, is built from field recordings of sand in different contexts, beaches, wind-swept dunes, construction sites, studio work with sand, broken into tiny particles with granular synthesis and reassembled. The lighting concept with Thorsten Kosellek bathes the hall in a warm amber glow that intensifies as visitors move through.

Research:
Lee and Reiner selected individual grains from the collection sites; grains of 0.2 to 2 mm were scanned on a Zeiss X-ray microscope in nano-CT at 400-nanometre resolution. The scan volume is a grayscale field of X-ray attenuation that carries no colours. Extensive interpretation and translation are required before the data become physical forms, from physical substrate to numerical information to 2d digital visualisation, and the process cannot be automated. The reconstructions are 3d printed in sections from sand and binder, limited by printer size, then assembled by Lee by hand into closed bodies.