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.

작가 구정아는 향기 이야기를 모으고 있습니다
Artist Koo Jeong A is collecting Smell Stories

당신은 도시나 고향의 냄새를 어떻게 기억하시나요?
How do you remember the smell of your city or hometown?

당신이 사는 도시나 고향의 향기와 냄새를 공유해주세요
Please upload Smell Stories of your city or hometown.

2024년 이 향기 이야기는 새로운 향수를 탄생시켜 구정아의 한국관 ‘ODORAMA CITIES’ 의 일부가 됩니다.
A new fragrance inspired by these Smell Stories will be launched at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024, where Koo Jeong A will present ‘Odorama Cities’ at the Korean pavilion.

2023년 9월 30일 이전까지 향기로운 추억을 업로드하세요
Upload your #SmellStory before 30 September 2023

우주공유

공중부양

냄새 ㅋ ~

Koo Jeong A is an internationally acclaimed South Korean artist whose practice explores perception, sensation and the invisible forces that shape our experience of the world. Working across sculpture, installation, architecture, drawing, film, sound and scent, she creates poetic environments that invite audiences to engage with space through intuition as much as observation. Often described as revealing the “soul” of a place, her works blur the boundaries between the material and immaterial, transforming everyday encounters into moments of discovery and contemplation.

Born in Seoul in 1967, Koo has developed a singular artistic language that combines minimal gestures with profound sensory experiences. Throughout her career she has incorporated elements such as smell, temperature, light, vibration and sound into her work, challenging conventional understandings of sculpture and installation. Whether creating intimate interventions or large-scale public projects, Koo encourages viewers to become active participants, engaging multiple senses to uncover hidden dimensions of space, memory and perception.

In 2023, Koo collaborated with CIRCA on Odorama Cities, a public commission presented across four screens in Seoul during Frieze Seoul. Broadcast nightly throughout September, the work invited audiences to share personal “Smell Stories” connected to their cities, towns and places of origin. These collective memories formed part of Koo’s wider research for the Korean Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, where she transformed the pavilion into an immersive scent journey exploring the landscapes, histories and identities of the Korean peninsula. Extending beyond the screen and into public participation, Odorama Cities exemplified Koo’s ability to transform intangible experiences into shared cultural encounters, connecting individual memories with collective imagination through one of the most evocative human senses.

Koo’s work has been exhibited internationally at major institutions including the Venice Biennale, Palais de Tokyo, Kunsthalle Basel, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Museo Tamayo and Leeum Museum of Art. Her celebrated glow-in-the-dark skateparks, immersive installations and sensory environments have established her as one of the most innovative artists working today.

Through a practice grounded in curiosity, subtlety and attentiveness, Koo Jeong A continually expands our understanding of how art can be experienced. Her works remind us that meaning is often found not only in what we see, but in what we sense, remember and feel.