Lee Ufan was born in South Korea and moved to Japan in 1956. Internationally renowned as a leading figure in the important postwar Japanese art movement Mono-ha, he presents materials like stone, wood, paper, and iron with almost no interference, thus liberating “things” from arbitrary human alteration, and directing our awareness to the world that unfolds in front of us as it really is. Lee has held major solo exhibitions at such venues as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2011), Palace of Versailles (France, 2014), Centre Pompidou-Metz (France, 2019), and National Art Center, Tokyo (2022). In 2010, the Lee Ufan Museum opened on Naoshima, Japan, followed by Space Lee Ufan annex of the Busan Museum of Art in South Korea in 2015, and Lee Ufan Arles in the French city of Arles in 2022.

Relatum (1968/2019) features sheets of industrial iron and glass placed over each other on the floor, with a large rock then on top. This abrupt encounter between the manmade and the natural evinces the interrelation of different elements. The work suggests that everything in the world exists not in and of itself, but rather in a relational state of harmony or resonance in which various things and phenomena are connected. This relationality extends, Lee believes, beyond the work and even encompasses the viewer, creating an infinitive realm.