Sternbau No. 4
2007
crystal, glass and acrylic beads on nickel-chrome wire,stainless steel and aluminum armature
131 × φ71 cm
installation view: "On Every New Shadow" Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris
Collection of Mr. Gao, Shanghai
Courtesy: Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York
Photo: Patrick Gries

In 1919, the German architect and urban planner Bruno Taut, who is best known for works such as his Glass Pavilion (1914), became inspired by the fantasy novelist Paul Scheerbart's essays on Glasarchitektur (Glass Architecture)(1914) and thus developed what he called Alpine Architecture(1919), in which buildings are giant artworks arranged in mountains as a kind of ornamentation. His ideas of Sternbau, which glitters like a star or a glass building reflecting the sunlight, resonate with Lee Bul's ideas of an ideal society, a fantasy landscape. It also reflects the notion of the incompleteness of utopian architecture theories. Several of Lee's “Mon grand récit” works thus suggest the influence of such.