Interview with Artist Yiyun Kang: A Bold Collaboration with Jaeger-LeCoultre

To foster the timeless dialogue between watchmaking, art, and craftsmanship, Jaeger-LeCoultre invited Korean new media artist Yiyun Kang to join its “Make of Makers” collaboration series. This unprecedented project for the watchmaking brand allows for the reinvention of creative expression while remaining true to the key values of La Grande Maison—creativity, expertise, and precision. In an exclusive interview, the artist explained her approach and offered insight into her work, imbued with an age-old secret.

Like musician Tokio Myers and digital flower sculptor Brendi Wedinger, Yiyun Kang dedicated herself to this new chapter of “Make of Makers” focused on the Golden Ratio, the universal symbol of beauty and harmony. In her work—a 3D video sculptural creation titled “Origin”—she highlights the parallel between the symmetry of nature and the characteristic geometry of the Art Deco movement that inspired the Reverso Collection. She illustrates the role of the Divine Proportion, whose estimated value of 1.618 governs the codes of aesthetics. Following in the footsteps of Fibonacci and Pythagoras, Yiyun Kang closely examined the common denominator found both in nature and in human-made masterpieces: “I conducted scientific research to try to understand why humanity has been naturally drawn to this concept for millennia.” From the symmetry of plants, leaves, and petals, to the architecture of the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Parthenon in Athens, and the proportions of the Mona Lisa as well as the Reverso watch—the Golden Ratio is omnipresent in the world around us.

Projected onto a massive 3D screen, Yiyun Kang’s digital installation, created exclusively for Jaeger-LeCoultre, leaves us speechless. It amplifies the creative intelligence of nature and pays tribute to the fascinating complexity of the Reverso. According to the artist, “In terms of perfection, sophistication, and balance, there is no difference between nature and art.” Aesthetics then take on a new dimension, transforming into a mathematical formula—the true equation of beauty.