August 20, 2026–January 17, 2027
Seoul 03052
South Korea
Futura Seoul, an art space located in Gahoe-dong, Bukchon, presents 3rd Poem: Es Devlin, Come Home Again, the first solo exhibition in Korea by leading contemporary visual artist Es Devlin, from August 20, 2026 to January 17, 2027.
“Presence” across more than 30 years of practice
Born in the UK, Es Devlin began her career in opera and theatre at the Royal Opera House before designing stages for world-renowned musicians including U2, Beyoncé, Adele, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd. Her work has also shaped major cultural events including the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show. Since 2016, she has extended the spatial language developed through performance into museums and public spaces, creating environments in which audiences do more than simply view a work—they participate in shaping the experience within it. At the centre of this practice is the concept of a “Temporary Society” formed by an audience sharing a single space.
The exhibition brings together more than 30 years of Devlin’s practice across performance, visual art, architecture, literature and technology, reimagined within the spaces of Futura Seoul. At the heart of her practice is a personal process of recording passages encountered in books and drawing scenes from memory. These traces of thought evolve into works that bring together light and sound, sculpture and architecture.
For Devlin, “Presence” extends beyond simply existing in the here and now. It encompasses the voices of others carried into the present through books; the reflections of oneself and others encountered in mirrors; an awareness of time awakened by natural and artificial light; and the recognition that humans share a single world with diverse forms of life. As visitors move through and linger within the exhibition, they encounter the connections between the self and others, and between humans and other forms of life, experiencing “Presence” as something that emerges through relationships.
A spatial journey from books and mirrors to light and life
3rd Poem: Es Devlin, Come Home Again begins with Infinite Library, which takes the form of a small library. The artist’s drawings and moving images are projected across shelves of upside-down books, carrying the voices of people from different eras and languages into the present. As the projected bookshelf opens, visitors pass through the image and enter Mirror Maze, a space formed entirely of mirrors.
“Line of Light” occupies a space that opens onto the garden. Originating from a moment when the artist awoke and perceived only a single line of light, the work brings interior light and the natural light beyond the window into a single landscape, following the architectural flow of Futura Seoul towards the garden.
On the second floor, “Screenshare” brings together hundreds of sketchbooks accumulated over more than 30 years to form a single large screen. Drawings, notes made while developing works and traces of collaborative processes unfold through moving images. Once the film ends, visitors are invited to take home one of the sketches that formed the screen. In doing so, they carry a fragment of the exhibition into their everyday lives, extending the experience into new paths of thought and imagination.
“Come Home Again” weaves together drawings, voices and choral recordings of species encountered in London and Seoul into a single landscape. By learning the names of threatened beings and singing them together, the work invites visitors to remember the diversity of species and languages.
In the participatory work “Collective Portrait,” visitors leave their own traces within the exhibition. While “Screenshare” allows them to take away a sketch—a fragment of the exhibition—here visitors sit opposite one another at a large shared table, draw portraits of strangers and record their encounters. As these portraits and traces accumulate, the work continues to evolve throughout the exhibition.
