Star-Crossed Rendezvous after Yun
2024

Aluminum venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum hanging structure, steel wire rope, moving spotlights, DMX controller, speaker, tripod

400 x 530 x 1274 cm

Installation view of Leap Year, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 2024
Photo: Mark Blower 

 

Installation view of Leap Year, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2024
Photo: Marco De Swart 

Haegue Yang’s new installation, Star-Crossed Rendezvous after Yun (2024), features ascending layers of venetian blinds. It is inspired by Isang Yun (1917-1995), the Korean composer and politician dissident, and his Double Concerto (1977). A choreography of two moving lights at opposite ends of the exhibition space is paired with the musical score, played through the speakers positioned on either side.

양혜규의 대규모 블라인드 설치작 <윤에 따른 엇갈린 랑데부>(2024)는 다채로운 층위를 이루며 상승하는 모양새다. 작품은 사회적, 정치적 격변기를 살아낸 한국인 작곡가 고(故) 윤이상(1917-1995)과 그의 음악 「이중 협주곡Double Concerto」 (1977)에서 영감을 받았다. 전시장 양 끝에서 서로를 향해 마주보는 두 개의 움직이는 조명은, 마치 춤을 추듯 양쪽 스피커를 통해 흘러나오는 음악과 어우러진다.

Yang has long been interested in the late Korean composer and political dissident Isang Yun (1917–1995). In 1967 Yun was abducted by the South Korean government and accused of being a North Korean spy along with hundreds of other intellectuals. He was imprisoned and tortured, only released after two years thanks to an international campaign to secure his freedom. He settled in Germany and never returned to Korea in his lifetime.
The new installation Star-Crossed Rendezvous after Yun features a composition of mono-coloured layers of Venetian blinds in varying formations, accompanied by two stage lights and Yun’s musical score Double Concerto (1977). A concerto typically features a solo instrument, however this composition exceptionally has two. It is loosely based on a Korean folk tale in which a princess (the harp) falls in love with a cowherd (the oboe). Their forbidden love results in their banishment to opposite sides of the galaxy. Once a year, they have a reunion aided by birds who build a bridge. For Yun, the tale of star-crossed lovers acts as a metaphor for his advocacy for peace on the Korean peninsula and eventual unification of the two Koreas.
Bearing Yun’s conflicted life, Yang weaves his music into her installation. The ascending and descending levels of Venetian blinds, depending on your perspective, are permeated by two moving lights on opposite sides of the room, yet become synchronised with one another when Double Concerto is playing. Resembling a partially constructed bridge, the work conjures the hardship of exile and separation, but also the jubilation of being reunited.

Exhibition history

Leap Year, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2025

Leap Year, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 2024

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