Jean Nouvel, whose designs are at the junction of high technology and contemporary art, defines architecture as “space-constructing skills and image-manufacturing tasks”. The Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art’s Museum 2 envisioned Jean Nouvel’s design process.
With trees on the ground, the structure of Jean Nouvel’s Museum 2, which grandly arises from the carved ground, symbolizes the endless generation of contemporary art. The main components of the overground are exterior glass walls and rectangular cubes of various sizes.
These randomly placed exhibition boxes provide audiences brand-new exhibition experiences and contribute to visitors’ overall dynamic experience. The Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art’s Museum 2 will be used as a permanent exhibition space for the works of the world’s best contemporary artists such as Donald Judd and Damien Hirst, as well as artworks by Korean modern and contemporary artists. Audiences will enter through the lobby.
Rusted stainless-steel was used, for the first time anywhere, to manufacture the exhibition boxes. Countless tests and sample analyzation were done to visualize this paradoxical concept – that rust-proof stainless-steel could be rusted. Museum 2, like contemporary art that yields new meanings from objects by observing them paradoxically, sanctifies the whole building as a gigantic art piece through materials and spaces far beyond the conventional.