Lee Yongwoo founded the Shanghai Project, a platform of ideas and practices to prepare alternatives to challenges and crises that are rapidly approaching humans, such as the climate crisis, the Anthropocene, human extinction, and artificial intelligence, and served as artistic director in 2016 and 2017. He was the founding artistic director of the Gwangju Biennale and the president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation. He served as the director of the Shanghai Himalayas Museum and president of the International Biennial Association. He was a professor at the Shanghai University, Korea University, a distinguished professor at the Tokyo University of Arts, and is now a professor at the Tongji University.