Clear, Lucid, and Awake: A Cross-Cultural Meditation on Art, Nature, and Memory
To mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Spain and South Korea, the TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Foundation and Seoul’s Art Sonje Center present Clear, Lucid, and Awake, a landmark exhibition celebrating shared values, ecological consciousness, and artistic exchange.
Curated by acclaimed Spanish curator Chus Martínez, the exhibition runs from May 9 to July 20, 2025, and features thirty works by ten of Spain’s most compelling contemporary artists, most of whom are represented in the TBA21 Collection.
The exhibition brings together Irene de Andrés, Diego Delas, Cristina Lucas, Regina de Miguel, Asunción Molinos Gordo, Claudia Pagès Rabal, Belén Rodríguez, Teresa Solar Abboud, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, and Álvaro Urbano—artists whose practices straddle sculpture, installation, video, and performance. Many of them belong to a generation whose work is deeply intertwined with themes of ecological vulnerability, gender justice, and social transformation.
But Clear, Lucid, and Awake is more than an exhibition. It is an invitation to enter a state of attentiveness, inspired by the Tibetan text Clarifying the Natural State by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal. In this spirit, the works seek not to provide answers but to awaken our capacity to feel, to question, and to reimagine.
Spain and South Korea share more than just diplomatic ties; they are both peninsular nations shaped by complex relationships to land, water, and history. The exhibition explores these shared geographies and cultural sensibilities, emphasizing how both societies have grappled with modernization, urbanization, and the consequences of ecological degradation.
From coastal erosion to urban transformation, and from forgotten rural traditions to the rhythms of nonhuman life, the themes resonate across continents. The artworks on display open a dialogue between the Spanish and Korean contexts, connecting audiences through questions that transcend borders: What knowledge have we lost in the pursuit of progress? How can art become a form of ecological repair?
Curator Chus Martínez describes the exhibition as a way of “thinking of culture as a living mind, not as a historical substance carved in stone.” In this sense, Clear, Lucid, and Awake presents art not as a static reflection of the world, but as an active force—alive, responsive, and capable of reimagining the relationship between humans and the Earth.
The featured artists work with clay, fiber, sound, text, and image to evoke mythologies of water, rituals of care, and stories embedded in the land. Whether through the fragile geometries of Álvaro Urbano’s structures or the sensuous, surreal ecosystems of Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, the exhibition encourages viewers to slow down and listen—to time, to the body, to the Earth.
As the world faces unprecedented ecological and social upheaval, Clear, Lucid, and Awake offers a vision of art as a compass—pointing not only to what we are losing, but also to what we might recover. In this meeting of Spanish and Korean artists, traditions, and sensibilities, we find a call to wakefulness: a reminder that clarity, lucidity, and awareness are not only spiritual ideals, but urgent cultural tools for our shared future.
Cover photo: Belén Rodríguez
Chaqueta de Granjero, 2024
Series of 12 c-prints
30 x 40 cm (each)
Courtesy of the artist
Photo: © Miriam Mora
Clear, Lucid, and Awake installation view. Art Sonje, Seoul, South Korea. 2025. Foto:
Seowon Nam. Courtesy of Art Sonje Center.
