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Koo Jeong A lives and works everywhere.

Since the early 1990s, Koo Jeong A has made works that are seemingly casual and commonplace, yet at the same time remarkably precise, deliberate, and considered. Her reflections on the senses and the body incorporate objects, still and moving images, audio elements, and aromas. Many of her works are conceived within site-specific environments that question the limits of fact and fiction, the imaginary and actuality of our world. Koo considers the connection of energies between a place and people, relying on chance to drive her encounters.

In realising her spaces and images, she draws from a wide spectrum of concerns which she developed over the years. Ranging from human cognition, to the philosophy of Taoism, from the science of Qi, to the interaction of natural elements such as earth, fire, metal, water, and wood. In her environments, nothing is merely ordinary; on the contrary, any material or phenomena—be it a mound of charcoal, a shaft of iron, or a glare of sunlight—is endowed with dignity and reverence and incites the surprise of a discovery. To venture near Koo’s work is to travel unreservedly through a cosmos of unassuming large and small forms, mysterious dwarfed spaces, and perilous landscapes of memories.

Circa Commissions

Koo Jeong A, Odorama Cities

Launching 6 September at 20:23 KST, CIRCA presents Odorama Cities, a new video work by internationally acclaimed Korean artist Koo Jeong A. Coinciding with Frieze Seoul, 3D animations will be shown across four screens, broadcasting for 3-minutes each evening at 20:23 local time until 30 September 2023. Submit your Smell Stories using the below form to help inspire a new fragrance which will be unveiled at the 60th Venice Art Biennale in 2024, where Koo will present ‘Odorama Cities’ inside the national Korean Pavilion. Curated by Jacob Fabricius (b.1970, Denmark) and Seolhui Lee (b.1987, South Korea), Koo Jeong A will transform the Korean Pavilion into an immersive Korean scent journey that features smells representing different rural areas, towns, and cities in South and North Korea. The Pavilion will create a captivating environment of intimacy, and through this scent journey make a national portrait of the Korean peninsula.  

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