Koo Jeong A Invites Us to Explore the Korean Peninsula Through Scent
By Keshav AnandUpon entering the Korean pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, the space appears mostly empty but breathe in, and a warm and complex scent reveals itself. Hailing from Seoul, South Korea, artist Koo Jeong A’s multidisciplinary practice — which nods to histories of Performance and Conceptual art — spans over two decades.
When examined closer, their works, appearing deceivingly commonplace in their subtlety, possess a remarkable precision. Through explorations of the senses and the body, Jeong A integrates various elements including objects, still and moving images, audio, and scent, in their output.
For this year’s International Art Exhibition, the artist has conceived ODORAMA CITIES, a multisensory and immersive installation housed within the Korean pavilion. Curated by Seolhui Lee, the Chief Curator at Kunsthal Aarhus, and Jacob Fabricius, the Director of Art Hub Copenhagen, the commission marks the 30-year anniversary of the Korean pavilion’s establishment in the grounds of the Giardini.
Through the project, the artist explores the nuances of our spatial encounters, focusing on the role of smells, good and bad, in shaping and evoking our memories of spaces. In conversation with Something Curated, Jeong A tells: “[The commission] gives me the possibility to create a very special and unforeseen perspective on Korea that we are going to build as a hypothesis.”
The artist elaborates: “I wish to revisit and reinvent the project ODORAMA — which I realised in London’s Charing Cross Underground Station — in a broad sense. Thus an exhibition concept was born from the very simple idea to portray the Korean Peninsula with scents.”
During the summer of 2023, over the course of three months, Jeong A gathered scent memories from various contributors. Responding through social media and online advertisements, as well as in-person exchanges, individuals with a relationship to Korea answered the question: “What is your scent memory of Korea?” This fruitful process generated more than 600 written statements. A selection of these scent memories can be found online at korean-pavilion.or.kr.
Jeong A reflects: “I realised later that the collected scent stories cannot only be from Korea. The expanded nation concept has to be implemented to broaden the sense of our common future. With this in mind, I decided to expand this to those outside of Korea — around the globe — so international participants could also submit a scent story about Korea through the open call process.
Through the open call I was able to collect multiple layers of the cities and the culture from past and recent events within Korea. I deeply appreciate the submissions and the particular stories about Korean scent memories — either from within Korea or reminders of Korea that are no longer there.”
After collating the submissions, the artist collaborated with perfumers at Seoul-based lifestyle and fragrance label NONFICTION to translate the written memories into 17 distinct scents for the pavilion. These include: City Scent, Night Air, Scent of People, Smell of Seoul, Salty Smell, Scent of Siebold’s Magnolia, Smell of Sunlight, Fog, Smell of Tree, Jangdokdae, Smell of Rice, Smell of Firewood, Grandparents’ House, Fish Market, Public Bath, Old Electronics, and last but not least ODORAMA CITIES.
Along with the aromas that permeate the air, Jeong A explores an expanded tactility through the Korean pavilion’s wooden floor — easily missed, particularly during the crowded opening — which they have engraved with recurring infinity symbols. Elsewhere, two circular wooden sculptures, reminiscent of planetary orbits, levitate in the space and, positioned in an adjoining room, a striking bronze figure acts as a scent-diffuser, blowing plumes of fragranced mist out of its nostrils.
Changing pace from the Biennale for a moment, Jeong A shares some of their favourite cultural spaces in Seoul with SC: “Art Sonje Center, Leeum Museum of Art and of course also the gallery PKM, which represents me (alongside Pilar Corrias gallery in London), and where you can see artworks in the garden sometimes or take a wonderful tea break at the café.”
Koo Jeong A’s reading list:
The Half Known Life. Finding Paradise in a Divided World by Pico Iyer
Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard Feynman
Fearful Symmetry by Anthony Zee
Culture by Martin Puchner
Feature image: Koo Jeong A – ODORAMA CITIES, Korean Pavilion 2024, La Biennale di Venezia. Installation view. Courtesy of Pilar Corrias, London, and PKM Gallery, Seoul. Photo: Mark Blower