Koo Jeong-a, known for her conceptual work centered on elusive elements such as fragrance, silence and luminescence, has been chosen to represent South Korea at the 60th Venice Biennale, which runs from April 20 to 24. November 2024, the Korean herald reports. The notoriously reluctant Koo first came to prominence in 1998, with her contribution to the “Unfinished Story” exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, for which she created a shelter in the corner of the gallery, where she hid during the installation of the exhibition. When the exhibit opened and the structure was removed, all that remained was a pile of papier-mâché where Koo had lain. She attracts even more attention for her phosphorescent skateparks, which she begins to manufacture in 2012. She participated in the Biennials of 1995, 2001 and 2003. She has enjoyed solo exhibitions at the Center Pompidou, Paris; Moderna Museum, Stockholm; and Dia: Beacon, New York. His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Tate Modern in London.
The Korean pavilion will be co-organized by Jacob Fabricius and Lee Sun-hee. Fabricius is director of Kunsthal Aarhus in Denmark; before assuming this role, in 2021, he was artistic director there from 2016. He was artistic director of the Busan Biennale in 2020. Lee Sun-Hee is curator at Kunsthal Aarhus; she led the exhibition team for the 2020 Busan Biennale. The duo’s collaboration marks the pavilion’s first joint curatorship since its founding in 1995.
Aarhus and Lee will organize the pavilion around the theme “Korean Scent Journey”. Koo will bring works grouped under the heading “Odorama Cities”. Visitors to the pavilion will be immersed in an intimate environment filled with elements such as scents and temperatures, which together will evoke a national portrait of Korea.
“The unique sensibility of artist Koo Jeong-a will be expressed through the exhibition, and the Korea Pavilion will serve as a place of sensory experience and function as a memory community,” said a representative from the Korea Council for the Arts, who sponsors the pavilion.
