EXHIBITION
ARTIST
- LEEYANGHEE SANJO, 2025, performance, 21min.
- LEEYANGHEE IPCHUM, single-channel video, color, sound(stereo), 3min.
Korean traditional dancer Yanghee Lee navigates the intersections of heritage and contemporary performance, delving into the fundamental essence and form of Korean dance. In her latest works, Lee Yanghee Sanjo and Lee Yanghee Ipchum, she reconstructs the principles and techniques she has mastered, integrating contemporary dance elements in attempts to overcome the challenges of inheriting intangible cultural heritage.
These works originate from shin muyong (New Dance), a modernized form of Korean dance shaped by Western theater conventions during Korea’s modernization. Lee reinterprets sanjo and ipchum – two dance styles that evolved within this tradition – creating a unique fusion of tradition and contemporary.
Over the years, Lee has pushed back against rigid hierarchies and conventions long preserved under the name of “tradition.” However, in her new works, she returns to the core principles of her dance style, reexamining the relevance and aesthetic value of Korean traditional dance. Rooted in dance, these performances serve as an experimental platform that merges performance and exhibition, offering a new artistic experience and perspective where audience can engage interactively.
Yanghee Lee (b. 1976) is an artist who works at the intersection of performance, theater, and exhibition spaces; using the language of performing arts to create temporary theaters and immersive experiences. Her practice is deeply rooted in traditional Korean dance, which she has trained in since childhood, yet she also draws inspiration from the underground club culture of Korea in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
By intertwining these seemingly disparate influences, Lee reframes Korean dance beyond the rigid confines of “tradition”, challenging its formal restrictions and deteriorated archetypes. Her work examines the ephemeral and immaterial nature of the body’s movement, seeking to redefine dance as an open-ended act rather than a fixed form.
Recently, Lee has centered her work around the body, pleasure, and form, using dance as a fluid and undefined medium expressed through video and performance. With the Limbo Project Performing Art Lab, she investigates the attitude, value, and ownership of performing arts, questioning who defines and controls artistic expression. Her workshops and performances take a horizontal manner, emphasizing shared experiences and collective exploration.
Lee was selected as an artist- in-residence at New York Live Arts (2011), Movement Research (2014- 2016) and received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council (2016). Her major works include Shimmering, Aficionado, Twixt, Twig, Hedonist, Hail, Gesamtkunstwerk, Dusk, and Unlearn: Form and Cliché. Lee’s major solo exhibitions include Axis and Feet (The Page Gallery, 2024), IN (Whistle, 2024), and Hail (d/p, 2020). Her major group exhibitions include the Busan Biennale 2024 Seeing in the Dark (Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, 2024), Big Brother Blockchain (Nam June Paik Art Center, 2024), Theater Post Media and Site (Busan Museum of Art, 2023), Landscape of Life: How Are You Today? (Ulsan Art Museum, 2023), play, pause, repeat (Artspace Boan, 2023), Flesh Stone Oil (WESS, 2022), and 1920 Memory Theater The Gold Rush (Ilmin Museum of Art, 2020).
Instagram: @leeyanghee_choreographic
