Introduction

Esther Schipper extends heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the victims of the Itaewon disaster and their families. We send our thoughts and prayers to all affected by this tragedy.

We will not be holding an official opening for Tino Sehgal and Philippe Parreno's participation in the Ob/Scene Festival, but you are welcome to visit the presentation November 4–20.

At Esther Schipper Seoul, two works will be presented November 4–20, 2022: Tino Sehgal’s Ann Lee, 2011, and Philippe Parreno’s Anywhere Out Of The World, 2000, as part of Ob/Scene Festival.

In 1999, Philippe Parreno and Pierre Huyghe acquired the copyright for a Japanese manga character and her original image from the Japanese agency KWorks. They named her Ann Lee.

Originally conceived by the agency to license the character to appear in minor roles in comics, ads or videogames, Ann Lee was “freed” of all industrial copyright. Parreno and Huyghe proposed Ann Lee to sixteen artists including Liam Gillick, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Richard Phillips, as well as to French actress Catherine Deneuve—who were invited to use the character for their own stories, yielding a series of videos, objects, and prints.

In Parreno’s video Anywhere Out of the World, 2000, Ann Lee appears as a 3D character conceived with a motion capture animation. The film consists of a single animated sequence where Ann Lee presents herself and her story: “My name is Ann Lee! Ann Lee! You can spell it however you want! It doesn’t matter, no, it does not. […] I am an imaginary character. I am no ghost, just a shell.”

In 2011, Tino Sehgal—a regular collaborator of both Huyghe and Parreno—paid tribute to the artists’ project by bringing Ann Lee back to life as a little girl in one of his “constructed situations” (Ann Lee, 2011).

The works can be experienced at Esther Schipper Seoul, November 4–20, 2022, Tuesday–Sunday, 12–6pm.