Koo Jeong A (they/them) is constantly in orbit, living and working everywhere. In their practice, architectural elements, texts, drawings, paintings, sculptures, animations, sound, film, words, and scents play a significant role. Throughout the years, KOO has investigated and blurred the lines between their artwork and the space it occupies. The works add new layers to any given space, and KOO manages to merge small intimate experiences and large-scale immersive pieces.
The curatorial approach for the Korean Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition—The Venice Biennale has been to combine some of the key subjects and sculptural elements that KOO JEONG A has worked with during the last three decades. One of the recurring themes in the artist’s multi-faceted oeuvre is scent. With the new commission Odorama Cities, created especially for the Korean Pavilion, KOO delves into the nuances of our spatial encounters, investigating how we perceive and recollect spaces, with a particular emphasis on how scents, smells, and odors contribute to these memories.
“On spring days when Korean rosebays are in bloom, I find myself missing my hometown even more. Here in South Korea, I smell the flowers, hoping to find the same scent as the ones back in North Korea. And indeed, they share the same scent.”
Musan-gun, Hamgyeongbuk-do, North Korea (1967) from the Scent Memory Open Call (2023)
Within an exploration of the essence of scent, the very inhalation and exhalation of molecules seamlessly connects with other prominent interests in KOO’s art such as immaterialism, weightlessness, endlessness, and levitation. These four keywords are mirrored throughout the Korean Pavilion. They are embedded and engraved as infinity symbols directly into both the new wooden floor and the outdoor installations, are manifested as two floating wooden möbius-shaped sculptures and a levitating, scent-diffusing bronze figure KANGSE SpSt (2024), and finally are symbolized in the scents that transform the pavilion into a collection of olfactory memories.
Through an open call process from June 25 to September 30, 2023, people shared and contributed scent memories for Odorama Cities, a work aimed at creating a scent portrait of the Korean peninsula. Using social media, advertisements, press releases, personal one-on-one meetings, and letters, the team behind the Korean Pavilion reached out to Koreans and non-Koreans alike—anyone with a relationship to Korea—and asked the question: “What is your scent memory of Korea?” This open call generated more than 600 written statements about Korean scents.
Some memories are very personal and descriptive, while others are boiled down to a sentence or even one word. The perfumers, armed with these stories and keywords, took on the task of interpreting and incorporating them into the creation of 16 distinct scent experiences for the pavilion and a single commercial fragrance. Written versions of the scent memories can be found online at: korean-pavilion.or.kr
KOO has selected stories containing the following keywords to appear as scent experiences at the Korean Pavilion: 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.
Scent has no borders. Welcome to Odorama Cities.
Text by Seolhui Lee & Jacob Fabricius, Artistic Directors
The exhibition has been commissioned by Arts Council Korea (ARKO), in partnership with Hyundai Motor / Partners: NONFICTION, LUMA Foundation, Dinesen/Collaborator: LUSH /Sponsors: ILJIN Culture Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, Agnès b, Bazaar Art, Art Hub Copenhagen/Supporters: Albarrán Bourdais, Pilar Corrias, Pinksummer Gallery, PKM Gallery.
