ODORAMA CITIES

KOO JEONG A (b. Seoul, South Korea, 1967; lives and works everywhere) worked on reinventing spaces through participatory site-specific installations since the 1990s. KOO is internationally acclaimed for their poetic interventions into pre-existing environments with the aim to make their “souls” visible. By combining texts, drawings, sculptures, and installations with sounds, scents as well as elements such as wind, warmth, and light, KOO’s installations and spatial interventions create formidable immersive experiences and, more importantly, transformative sensual encounters with and between the visitors.

For the 60th Venice Biennale the artist will transform the cylindrical steel building of the Korean Pavilion into ODORAMA CITIES, an immersive scent journey that represents different rural areas, towns, and cities in South and North Korea. The contribution will create a captivating environment of intimacy and national portrait of the Korean peninsula.

The publication accompanying the exhibition includes texts by Frank Boehm, Sooyon Lee, Lee Young June, Jessica Morgan, Luca Turin, Kyung Jin Zoh, poems by Kim Hyesoon, Kim Namjo, Eva Tind, an interview by Grégory Couderc (with Jean-Claude Ellena), an interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist (with KOO JEONG A), and an introduction by the Artistic Directors Seolhui Lee and Jacob Fabricius. A special edition box set combining the book and scent samples from the work will be released in 2024.