Dan Lie’s practice focuses on the transformations that time imposes on organic matter, recognising that these processes signal not the end of life but a transition to other modes of existence. Lie is sensitive to how such transformations reveal a logic of continuity in which the death of an element is not merely loss but a precondition for the evolution of complex ecosystems. Through a study of family stories and traditions, as well as research into how other cultures confront death, cope with mourning, and create rituals around rites of passage, Lie conceives installations that invite us to reimagine death outside the binary of presence and absence.
Lie’s installations respond to the site in which they are exhibited, combining natural and organic components such as flowers, germinating seeds, plants, mushroom spores and soil, with hemp cloth bags, ropes, saffron-dyed fabrics and ceramic vessels. The formal composition of these works continually evolves, as new organisms (plants, fungi, moss) emerge from the ongoing biological interactions among materials. In the Biennale Arte 2026, Lie responds to the history of the Corderie dell’Arsenale, which was once a factory for the manufacture of ropes, a fundamental element in Lie’s work – they support the sculptures, organise the formation, and create fields of force that shape the spatial composition.
—Thiago de Paula Souza
