Performance Series: Dictée/Exilée by Suwon Lee

In the context of the current exhibition The Appearance: Art of the Asian Diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean, and as part of our Performance Series, Art at Americas Society presents the debut performance of Dictée/Exilée by Venezuelan-Korean artist Suwon Lee. The performance will take place on Wednesday, November 20, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm ET, at Americas Society in New York, followed by a celebratory reception. This event is in person, free, and open to the public.

Join us on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm ET 
Americas Society 
680 Park Ave. 
New York, NY 
Registration is required to attend in person. 
RSVP HERE

Doors open at 6:00 pm. The performance will begin promptly at 6:15 pm. RSVP is REQUIRED. Early arrival is suggested as space is limited, and entry is not guaranteed for late arrivals.

The program's recording will be available on this website and on the Art at Americas Society YouTube channel.

About the Work

In 1975, Korean American artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's powerful performance Aveugle Voix embodied the challenges of expressing the migrant experience through language. By covering her eyes and mouth with bandages labeled "voice" and "blind," she enacted the fragmentation of identity, language, and memory. Cha's work, rich in multiplicity and multilingualism, is an enduring inspiration for the performance, Dictée/Exilée, part of the Performance Series at Americas Society.

In this piece, Suwon Lee pays homage to Cha's legacy while weaving a narrative that reflects her own journey as a Venezuelan woman living in self-imposed exile for the past eight years. Her performance explores the complexities of preserving identity and cultural memory amidst physical displacement. By reciting over 380 names of cities, streets, natural monuments, flora, and fauna from her homeland, she creates a "spoken portrait" that roots her in the cultural memory of Venezuela—a memory that transcends geographical and linguistic boundaries.

This act of remembering and vocalizing is not just a metaphorical declaration; it is a concrete affirmation of identity, grounding Suwon in the rich heritage of a land she has physically left behind yet continues to carry within her. As Cha wrote in Exilée/Temps Morts, “Exile is dead time.” When all ties to the homeland are severed, a personal act can overturn this “death” of exile, transforming it into a collective experience. Through this performance, Suwon hopes to evoke shared memories among others who are from Venezuela or have lived there, creating a journey through time and space in our minds. The words we choose and the way we speak are not merely tools of communication; they are vessels of identity, connecting us to our roots even when we are far from home. In this performance, the dimmed lights, projected images, and spoken words intertwine to form a tunnel-like narrative, drawing the audience into a dreamlike exploration of identity, memory, and the unyielding ties to one's mother tongue. As Cha poignantly expressed in her seminal work Dictée, “Mother tongue is your refuge. It is being home.” Dictée/Exilée is not just a performance—it is a reclamation of self, an affirmation that, despite the passage of time and distance, exile is not the end, but a continuation of one's cultural journey.

About the Artist

In Suwon Lee’s oeuvre, photography emerges as the dominant medium—though not the sole one—employed to investigate light as a physical force with the power to create images. These medium functions both literally and metaphorically, allowing for an exploration of various dimensions of human essence. Through the interplay of themes such as collective memory, identity, reflections on social crises, the passage of time, and our relationship with nature and the environment, Lee produces a collection of images that are both exquisitely crafted and subtly unsettling in their serene beauty.

Within this framework, the recurring motif of landscape serves as a conduit for Lee to explore her identity as a perpetual foreigner and to validate certain political realities. Additionally, it becomes a tool for self-exploration and a means of connecting with geographical spaces through a deeply personal approach to spirituality. (Richard Aranguren)

Suwon Lee (b. 1977, Caracas) is a Korean-Venezuelan artist currently based in Madrid. She belongs to the recent Venezuelan diaspora.

She has exhibited individually in Caracas, Madrid and Seoul. International group shows include: Americas Society in New York and Poli/Gráfica in Puerto Rico (2024), MoMA New York (2023), Círculo de Bellas Artes Madrid (2021), the Guangzhou Image Triennial curated by Gerardo Mosquera (2021), Vincent Price Museum, USA (2018); Arizona State University Museum, USA (2017); Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France (2013); Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico (2014), the 9th Bienal do Mercosul (2013), Biennial of the Americas: Draft Urbanism (2013); and many other shows in the US, Brazil, Venezuela, Panama, Spain, Colombia, Chile, South Korea, and France, among others. Her works are in the collections of MoMA New York (USA), Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (USA), Colección Banco Mercantil (Venezuela), CIFO Miami (USA), Museu de Arte Brasileira da Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (Brazil) and in various private collections in Venezuela, Colombia, USA, Spain, Germany, Costa Rica, Argentina and Puerto Rico. 

Visuals & Sound: Marcos Arévalo

Performance Series

This event is part of our Performance Series. Check out recordings of past performances and read about the series.