Bunker (M. Bakhtin)
2007
cast fiberglass on stainless steel frame, plywood, leather, electronics, interactive sound work
300 × 400 × 280 cm

installation view: “On Every New Shadow” Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, paris
Courtesy: Lehman Maupin Gallery, Newyork
Photo Courtesy: the Artist and Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, paris
Photo: Patrick Gries

Bunker (M. Bakhtin), which looks like a black rocky mountain, has a cave-like interior that can be entered through a large fissure. The invisible key to this work is the ghost of Yi Gu, the man who was born as the heir to the Korean Imperial family and died in 2005. Lee Bul is fascinated by the dramatic life Yi led in the shadows of the modern development that occurred under Park Chung-hee's military dictatorship. Inside the cave, Lee juxtaposes the sounds of the visitors' footsteps with vibrations from locations that had significance in Yi's life. In this way, she creates an amalgam of history and Yi's memory with contemporary times.