SOL, a public art commission created by Jorge Mañes Rubio for Gwangmyeong’s “Today’s Weather”, is now completed. SOL is located on the public garden above U PLANET’s five stories high building. This public art project was planned by Team Factory Seoul, with Design Firm as collaborative partners.

Today’s Weather is a public art project as part of the architectural art project in the U PLANET complex near Gwangmyeong Station. The close collaboration with Taeyoung Construction, the planning team, Team Factory, participating artists, and other stakeholders over the past three years has been a new attempt in process and method that is different from the conventional approach to architectural artworks.
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SOL
Size: Glass stela 100cm(W) x 20cm(D) x 300cm(H) / Grass hill 16m(W) x 15m(D) x 0,7m(H).⁣
Material: triple laminated glass panel, soil, grass.⁣
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Historically, tracking the movement of the sun and its exact location at sunrise and sunset was amongst the first bodies of astronomical knowledge, a universal metaphor for a perpetual promise of a new beginning. Today, we rarely look up the sky, and any myths or mysteries seem to have been removed from the heavens. This project aims to partly restore that connection through a new public art installation where people can slow down, get together, contemplate, and reconnect with the sky and each other. ⁣
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On May 19th, 2005, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured a stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. Mars is known as the Red Planet, but this spectacular Martian sunset was surprisingly blue. ⁣
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On an urban location where the horizon is blocked by high-rise buildings, with SOL we want not just to reflect the sky and recreate the coloured lights from a martian sunset, but more importantly, bring back the idea of awe and ritual around weather phenomenons. Rather than a static work of art, SOL can be better described as an experience that acknowledges the power and importance of the cultural production of space.⁣
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