Yongwoo Lee

Lee was the founding director of the Gwangju Biennale in 1995, the first international biennial in East Asia, which took "Beyond the Borders" as its inaugural theme.[7] The first Gwangju Biennale was visited by 1.63 million spectators, which remains the largest audience in the history of biennials.[8] He was once again invited to curate the 2004 Gwangju Biennale for its 10 years anniversary and also served as president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation from 2008 to 2014.[9] During his tenure, the Gwangju Biennale invited various curators such as Okwui Enwezor, Masimiliano Gioni, Ai Weiwei, Seung Hyosang, Jessica Morgan, Sunjung Kim, Carol Yinghua Lu, Mami Kataoka, Nancy Adajania, Alia Swastika, Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Nikolaus Hirsch to serve as artistic directors of the Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju Design Biennale as well as Gwangju Folly.

Lee founded the Shanghai Project in 2015 when he was the executive director of Shanghai Himalayas Museum, and co-curated its 2016 and 2017 editions with Hans Ulrich Obrist.[10] The Shanghai Project aimed to create a multidisciplinary ideas platform bringing together practitioners from a variety of disciplines, including art, architecture, design, film, performance, and sound, as well as the humanities, social and natural sciences.[11] The project explored the future of human beings in 100 years with the theme 2116 focusing on climate change, human extinction, virtual reality and slow-aging.[12]

Lee is the artistic director of the Shanghai International Art City Research Institute, which was established in 2017 by Baowu Steel and Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts (SAFA), Shanghai University.[13] The art city is a long-term project that transforms the decommissioned industrial heritage of the Baowu Steel compound into an art city. The planned art facilities include museums, arts streets, studios, galleries, art and architecture colleges, residential spaces, theaters, and other cultural facilities. The Shanghai International Art City Research Institute is located within Shanghai University, and has the function of a research program as well as the mission to intervene in various spaces attached to art cities. The Advisory Board Members of SIAC and guest professors of SAFA include Frances Morris (director, Tate Modern), Jean de Loisy (director, Ecole des Beaux-Art Paris), Italo Rota (architect, professor of NABA), Eva Franch i Gilabert (Director, AA School of Architecture), Andrew Brewerton (principal, Plymouth School of Art and Design), and Daniel Moquay (director, Yves Klein Archive).[14]