Mire Lee: The Heart of My Machine is Golden Lead — Secession, from June 26
- The file
- The practical details Claire checked before this went into the index.
- When
- 26 June 2026 – 30 August 2026
- Where
- Wiener Secession, Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Wien — the 1st
- Price
- €5 (check secession.at)
- Indoor
- Kinetic sculpture
- International artist
- Secession solo
- 1st district
Mire Lee makes machines that don't work the way you'd expect. They move, leak, and breathe. The boundaries between human and machine dissolve in her practice, and what emerges is genuinely unsettling: soft parts moving where you'd expect metal, hard forms that behave like they're tired or struggling.
Born in Seoul in 1988, Lee now lives between Amsterdam and Seoul. She's shown at Tate Modern, the Venice Biennale, and the New Museum in New York. This is her first major solo in Austria.
The Work
Lee's sculptures are what she calls "dysfunctional body-machine hybrids." They're caught in endless cycles of production and exhaustion. Some pieces move in ways that feel almost biological — pulsing, contracting, leaking. Others are static but built in a way that suggests they could move at any moment. The effect is unsettling because your eye keeps searching for the logic: Is this broken? Is it supposed to do this? Is it alive?
Why the Secession
The Secession building itself — a 1897 Jugendstil structure designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich — is part of the experience. It sits on Friedrichstraße in the 1st district, a white cube with a golden dome, and inside the light is particular: cool, clear, architectural. The building has its own pace. Lee's work responds to that space in a way that feels intentional.
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