3rd Poem: Es Devlin, Come Home Again

For many years, Es Devlin has explored the idea of Presence. To her, presence is not simply a matter of being here and now. It is found in voices revived through books, in encounters with others reflected in a mirror, in the sense of time revealed through light and nature, and in the awareness that we share one world with life beyond the human. Her work is rooted in these moments when relationships between different beings make presence tangible. Born in the United Kingdom, Es Devlin began her career designing opera and theatre productions before creating some of the defining visual spectacles of our time, from performances for celebrated musicians to the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games and the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show. Since 2016, she has expanded this language of space into museums and public realms. For Devlin, the audience is not simply a viewer, but a “Temporary Society”—a community formed through sharing the same space and time, and through the relationships that emerge from that shared experience. 3rd Poem: Es Devlin, Come Home Again is the third chapter in FUTURA SEOUL's ongoing series, One Hundred Poems. While the first two poems immersed the space in darkness, this exhibition welcomes natural light into the museum for the first time. As daylight enters, the building's curved architecture and the passing hours become part of the work itself. The space is no longer a backdrop, but the protagonist of this poem. Es Devlin describes it as “a poem written in the language of light.” The journey begins in a small library. Voices revived through books lead to encounters with oneself and others in a mirror, then unfold into a landscape where a single beam of light intersects with the rhythms of nature. Hundreds of sketchbooks come together to form a moving image, and fragments of that image are carried away by visitors as seeds for new reflections. Come Home Again, newly created for Seoul, weaves together the living species of London and Seoul into a shared landscape, reminding us that a city, too, is a home inhabited by countless forms of life. Visitors become part of the work by reading, listening, and leaving their own traces. At the end of the journey, the space opens onto a garden. Reflected upon the water, the garden and the fading light mark the day's final passage. There, we come to recognize that we, others, and the more-than-human world all share the same home. It is, once again, the journey home.