Korean-born, Los Angeles-based artist Won Ju Lim to present 24 Seconds of Silence, her newest installation commissioned especially for UCCA’s Middle Room, which is also her first solo exhibition in Asia.

Inspired by Beijing’s urban landscape as well as science fiction and fantasy films such as Logan’s Run (1976), Metropolis (1927) and The Wizard of Oz (1939), Won Ju Lim has created 24 Seconds of Silence, a multimedia installation of sculptures combined with still and rotating projections of processed, abstracted video footage that the artist shot throughout Beijing. 24 Seconds of Silence is a single, large-scale installation that includes 14 pieces of sculpture and is illuminated by five video projections that reflect the vitality and fragmentation of Beijing’s landscape, where several historical moments are compressed into a single city block.

“As her exhibition at UCCA will affirm, Won Ju Lim is among the most talented and challenging artists of her generation,” says exhibition curator David Spalding. “Her long-term, artistic engagement with how we imagine and experience the built environment made me certain that she would find the urban landscape of Beijing fascinating. Ultimately, 24 Seconds of Silence invites viewers to see the world around them from a new perspective.”

UCCA’s continuing dedication to educational programs and public events includes a number of activities surrounding the exhibition. Won Ju Lim will give an artist’s talk about the development of her work; in addition, we will host a panel discussion about Beijing’s dramatic development. Children will be able to build their own fantasy city during a series of weekend workshops conducted in both Chinese and English. Finally, screenings of the films Logan’s Run (1976), Metropolis (1927) and The Wizard of Oz (1939), which inspired Won Ju Lim to create this work, will be shown in the UCCA Auditorium. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-colored catalogue.

Won Ju Lim’s work has been shown in recent solo exhibitions such as: Broken Landscape and Ruined Traces, Patrick Painter Inc., Los Angeles (2007); Won Ju Lim: In Many Things to Come, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii (2006); Idylle, DA2 Domus Artrium, Center of Contemporary Art, Salamanca, Spain (2005). In 2007, Lim was awarded the Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship. In 2006, she won Korean Arts Foundation of America’s Award for Visual Arts.