Jaeuk Lee is a South Korean artist born in 1980, living and working in Seoul.

Having finished his master in photography in Bremen, Germany, Jaeuk Lee returned to South Korea and stayed for a one year residency on the island of Jeju, south of the Korean Peninsula. During his stay at Jeju Jaeuk Lee discovered the tragical events that happened on the island from 1947 to 1954. The Jeju uprising of April 3 1948 is known in South Korea as the Jeju 4.3 Massacre where the military declared that anyone found more than 5 kilometers from the coast would be considered a communist and shot on sight, resulting in the deaths of over 25,000 people.

The exhibition Red Line references the Jeju 4-3 Incident in South Korea and connects to current events in the country, where forces of control persist, as evidenced by the recent announcement by President Yoon Suk-yeol regarding the imposition of martial law on December 3, 2024.

As a research driven artist, capturing stories from the past to make them contemporaneous, Jaeuk Lee doesn’t consider himself a documentary or archival photographer. His mindset in conceptualizing, creating or appropriating images serves another purpose, finishing and presenting a body of work that is completely controlled and autonomous within the world of photography. The artist archives history with newly created photographic images within the framework of his own visual aesthetic. Historical data, a script, topography, scenic interventions and artistic gestures are part of the construction of the final images for Red Line. Meticulously Jaeuk Lee spots location and photographic distance, installs the laser beam gun, and its height, length and depth are precisely defined to prepare the artist’s digital camera shots. After some color corrections the artwork is finalized and prepared for presentation.

The ephemeral red laser beam in the series highlights the thematic, making no compromise whatsoever, addressing to governments, historians and public, that beyond crossing the critical red line, humanity fails. Lee’s photos are traces and validations that history will teach us something. That we should not become silent witnesses.

Six years after producing a first series of 10 digitally photographed images in different formats, Jaeuk Lee will create an extended number of photographs to add to the Red Line series.

Currently Jaeuk Lee is also a participating artist in the Wiels residency program in Brussels until March 2025.

Bruno Devos
Editor and publisher of art books