Hallen 07, 2026 – Jeewi Lee x Phillip C. Reiner

For the art festival titled "Hallen 07", the Berlinische Galerie presents a two-room contribution by Jeewi Lee at the Wilhelm Hallen in Berlin, from 5 to 13 September 2026. The contribution spans the ash and charcoal work of 2019 to 2021 and the sand-based series of 2024 to 2026, and it leads into the Exhibiton, which opens at the Berlinische Galerie.

The first room holds Ashes to Ashes (2019 to 2021), made after Lee's residency at the Villa Romana in Florence. Its theme is a forest fire of 2018 on Monte Serra, in the province of Pisa, which destroyed 700 hectares of mountain woodland while she was staying in the region. She returned to the burnt terrain, photographed the aftermath and collected remnants of the event, a scenery in stark contrast to the romantic view of Tuscany. The work comprises prints with impressions of charred tree trunks, photographs, drawings in charcoal on paper, and an installation of soap, produced with a soap-maker from the ash and carbon particles of the burnt trees. Each soap object carries the unique imprint of a scorched fragment. The bars also recall an older practice: ash mixed with oil formed a black soap already used for washing in ancient times.

The second room continues with works from a series expanding since 2024 in collaboration with Phillip C. Reiner. Seven sculptures from Fragments (2024 to 2026), in quartz sand, synthetic resin and mixed media, replicate single grains of sand down to the finest detail. The grains come from different coastal regions; Lee scans them with nano-computed tomography, the data are digitally processed, and the reconstructions are 3d printed, enlarged up to several thousand times. The forms resemble the suseok, the shaped stones of Korean gardens that suggest mountains or animals. The titles name the find sites: Son Real, Sa Ràpita, Suedstrand, Forgia-Vecchia, Dadaepo and Akwidaa.