Relatum: Lee Ufan at the Palais des Papes

This summer, the Gothic monument, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, becomes the setting for a masterly encounter between sacred architecture and a work of rare spiritual intensity. This international event is part of the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and Korea, a celebration with which the City of Avignon is strongly associated, in resonance with the Festival d'Avignon, which has chosen Korean as the guest language for its 80th edition. A global artist with roots in Provence Born in Korea and moving to Japan at the age of twenty, Lee Ufan now lives and works between Japan, France and the United States. A key figure on the international scene, whose works are included in the world's greatest museum collections, he is in the news again and again in 2026. After landmark exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou-Metz and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, in May he inaugurated two major projects, Place Saint-Marc in Venice and the Dia Beacon in New York. His links with Provence are deep and enduring. Like Naoshima in Japan and Busan in Korea, Arles is home to one of only three museums in the world dedicated to his work - housed in the Hôtel Vernon. "Relatum": the power of dialogue and the sacred The concept of Relatum, which gives the installation its title, lies at the heart of Lee Ufan's approach. The term refers to the interplay of elements, the poetic encounter between nature (stone, slate) and the manufactured (steel, aluminium), but also to the invisible tension created between the work and its environment. A unique experience, made up of silence, philosophy and harmony, conceived by the artist as "an instant that lets us feel the breath of infinity".