“Mirror Maze,” 2026, Mirror glass, sound, LED, Variable size
British artist Es Devlin has spent more than three decades exploring what happens when people gather in a shared space. Her installations often transform architecture into a stage where books become gateways, light marks the passage of time, and strangers become temporary collaborators. Now, that approach takes center stage in 3rd Poem: Es Devlin, Come Home Again, her first solo exhibition in Korea.
On view at FUTURA SEOUL in Seoul, South Korea, the exhibition brings together her practice across drawing, sculpture, moving image, sound, literature, and light. Rather than presenting a conventional retrospective, the exhibition unfolds as a sequence of encounters, inviting visitors to read, walk through a moving image, lose themselves in reflections, draw strangers, and consider the other forms of life that share our cities.
The exhibition is the third chapter of FUTURA SEOUL’s ongoing 100 Poems series, which presents each show as a poem written by an artist. Devlin’s contribution brings together works that explore relationships between people, architecture, technology, literature, and the natural world.
Es Devlin’s first solo exhibition in Korea, 3rd Poem: Es Devlin, Come Home Again, is now on view at FUTURA SEOUL.
“Mirror Maze,” 2026, Mirror glass, sound, LED, Variable size
“Mirror Maze,” 2026, Mirror glass, sound, LED, Variable size
The exhibition opens with Infinite Library, a 2026 installation composed of rows of inverted books. Devlin projects drawings and moving images across the shelves, which periodically open to create a passage for visitors. Walking through the projected bookshelf leads into Mirror Maze, where mirrored surfaces multiply reflections and alter the viewer’s perception of the surrounding space.
Devlin has long explored how people interact within shared environments through what she calls a “Temporary Society,” a community that forms through the experience of gathering in the same space. At FUTURA SEOUL, this interest extends to the architecture itself. Come Home Again is the first exhibition in the 100 Poems series to incorporate natural daylight into the gallery, with sunlight changing the interior and views toward the garden throughout the day.
“Infinite Library,” 2026, Books, projected video, Variable size, Books Provided by Aladin
“Infinite Library,” 2026, Books, projected video, Variable size, Books Provided by Aladin
“Infinite Library,” 2026, Books, projected video, Variable size, Books Provided by Aladin
The exhibition brings together more than three decades of Devlin’s practice through immersive installations that explore books, reflection, light, architecture, sound, and creative process.
This relationship between light, architecture, and time is particularly evident in Line of Light. The 2026 installation developed from Devlin’s experience of waking and noticing a single beam of light before becoming aware of the room around her. At FUTURA SEOUL, artificial light, sound, and water interact with the natural light entering the building, creating an installation that changes hour by hour.
“Line of Light,” 2026, Strobe light, sound, water, Variable size. Duration: 00:07:12
Screenshare provides a more direct look at Devlin’s creative process. Originally created in 2024, the installation incorporates hundreds of sketchbooks that Devlin accumulated over 35 years. Together, they form a large-scale screen measuring approximately 11.6 meters by 3.6 meters (38.1 feet by 11.8 feet).
The sketchbooks document different aspects of Devlin’s life and practice, including drawings of London’s wildlife, her children, and ideas developed with collaborators. The projected imagery also incorporates footage Devlin created with dancer Dam Van Huynh in 2008.
Visitors can participate in the work by taking an individual sketch from the installation home with them. The gesture allows portions of Devlin’s extensive archive to leave the exhibition and continue beyond the gallery.
“Screenshare,” 2024, Recycled Paper, projected video, sound, 11.6 × 3.6m, Paper Sponsored by Hansol Paper
“Screenshare,” 2024, Recycled Paper, projected video, sound, 11.6 × 3.6m, Paper Sponsored by Hansol Paper
Come Home Again connects endangered species in London and Seoul through drawings, recordings, and collective singing, expanding the exhibition’s focus beyond human experience.
The exhibition’s title work, Come Home Again, was created specifically for Seoul in 2026. The installation brings together painted plywood, sound, LED elements, drawings, and voices to consider endangered species found in London and Seoul.
Visitors can learn the names of threatened species and sing them together as part of the work. Devlin connects biodiversity with linguistic diversity, drawing attention to the ways both species and languages can disappear over time.
The Seoul version builds on Devlin’s earlier work exploring endangered species in London. By bringing London and Seoul into the same project, the new installation considers how different cities can share ecological concerns despite their geographic and cultural differences.
“Come Home Again,” 2026, Painted plywood, sound, LED, 5 × 3m
“Come Home Again,” 2026, Painted plywood, sound, LED, 5 × 3m
“Come Home Again,” 2026, Painted plywood, sound, LED, 5 × 3m
Participatory works including Collective Portrait and Collective Reading invite visitors to contribute to the exhibition while considering how art can foster connections between people, place, and the natural world.
Participation continues through Collective Portrait, where visitors sit across from one another and create portraits of strangers at a shared table. The drawings accumulate over the course of the exhibition, creating a growing record of the people who have taken part.
Collective Reading similarly incorporates visitors into the exhibition through literature. The work provides a space for visitors to encounter books that have influenced Devlin’s thinking and practice.
“Collective Portrait”
“Reading Room”
“Reading Room”
3rd Poem: Es Devlin, Come Home Again is now on view at FUTURA SEOUL through January 17, 2027.
Rather than presenting Devlin’s career as a straightforward retrospective, 3rd Poem: Es Devlin, Come Home Again brings works from different periods of her practice into conversation with FUTURA SEOUL’s architecture and with one another. The exhibition ultimately considers how people experience shared spaces and how those spaces can connect us to other people, places, and forms of life.
3rd Poem: Es Devlin, Come Home Again is now on view at FUTURA SEOUL until January 17, 2027.
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