[Exhibition of the Week] Gu Jeong-a's 'Odorama City' Return Report Exhibition · Kim Seong-hwan Solo Exhibition 'Ua a‘o ‘ia ‘o ia e ia' and More

Editor's NoteThis week's exhibitions introduce a variety of attractive shows from across the country that can be experienced over the course of one week.

▲ Return Report Exhibition of 'Koo Jung-ah ? Odorama City' = Arko Art Center will hold a return report exhibition of 'Koo Jung-ah ? Odorama City,' which was presented at the Korean Pavilion of the 60th Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition.

KOO JEONG A - ODORAMA CITIES, Korean Pavilion 2024, La Biennale di Venezia, Installation view, Courtesy of Pilar Corrias, London, and PKM Gallery, Seoul, ?Mark Blower.

Co-artistic directors Iselhee (Chief Curator at Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark) and Jakob Fabricius (Director of Art Hub Copenhagen, Denmark) curated this return exhibition, which is a solo show offering a more multidimensional perspective on Koo Jung-ah’s Korean Pavilion exhibition.

The exhibition title ‘Odorama’ is a word combining ‘odor,’ meaning scent, and the suffix ‘-rama’ from ‘drama.’ Koo Jung-ah uses olfaction and vision as synesthetic media to explore the boundary between the visible and invisible, proposing open possibilities beyond these two worlds. Through publicly solicited stories, the exhibition focuses on communication and chance, as well as the energetic connections between space and viewers.

Comprising over 600 scent memories and 17 types of fragrances, this return exhibition examines how smells and scents affect memory through various nuances of spatial encounters, providing an opportunity to explore how we recall spaces.

Artist Koo Jung-ah, who lives and works in multiple locations, has gained steady international attention for capturing the characteristics of everyday scenes and objects that are fragile or easily disappear, awakening the poetic aspects of the ordinary.

KOO JEONG A - ODORAMA CITIES, Korean Pavilion 2024, La Biennale di Venezia, Installation view, Courtesy of Pilar Corrias, London, and PKM Gallery, Seoul, ?Mark Blower.

Though seemingly ordinary, her delicate and lucid works encompass multiple media including scent, drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, moving images, architectural projects, poetry, and novels, aiming beyond the boundaries of reality and unreality, existence and non-existence. Most works are conceived in site-specific environments that question the limits of imagination and reality in our world, exploring the energetic connections between places and people and opportunities to facilitate their encounters. The exhibition runs until March 23, 2025, at Arko Art Center, 3 Dongsung-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Kim Seonghwan, , 2023,
Still cut. H.264 QuickTime 2160p on SSD, 16:9, color, sound (stereo), 14 minutes 4 seconds. [Photo by the artist]

▲ Kim Sung-hwan Solo Exhibition 'Ua a‘o ‘ia ‘o ia e ia' = Seoul Museum of Art presents a solo exhibition by artist Kim Sung-hwan titled 'Ua a‘o ‘ia ‘o ia e ia' (He learned from him. Taught by him) at the Seosomun Main Building for approximately 100 days until March 30, 2025.

Planned as part of Seoul Museum of Art’s annual exhibition series featuring representative contemporary Korean artists (2021 Lee Bul, 2022 Jung So-young, 2023 Koo Bon-chang), this exhibition is Kim Sung-hwan’s first large-scale solo show. It combines various media such as architecture, film, music, and literature to explore social structures and the memories, history, and psychological traces within them. The exhibition is significant as it highlights the work of an artist who has been more active on the international stage within Korea.

The exhibition centers on the multi-research series 'Pyohaerok (A Record of Drifting Across the Sea),' which Kim has been developing since 2017, including diverse new works in design, flat media, video, movement, and publishing. The works propose abstracted structures and systems by combining the historical context of modernity and colonialism with narratives of specific events and figures. 'Pyohaerok' begins with the story of undocumented Korean immigrants who migrated from Joseon to Hawaii and then to the United States in the early 20th century, weaving a multilayered narrative of early immigrants crossing the Pacific. Through absent historical narratives, it explores the relationship between institutions and knowledge, setting Hawaii as a drifting place to unfold numerous stories.

Kim Seonghwan,

This exhibition communicates with the audience in a new format. During the exhibition period, the works undergo continuous change and renewal, and parts of the production process are open to the audience. This allows viewers not only to appreciate the completed works but also to witness the process of the artist’s thoughts taking shape as art. This exhibition method emphasizes experience and witnessing, encouraging the audience to engage with the formation of information and knowledge.

'Pyohaerok' was first introduced at the 2021 Gwangju Biennale GB Commission, and has since been steadily expanded through the 2022 Hawaii Triennale, 2023 solo exhibition at Museum Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands, and 2024 solo exhibition at ZKM in Germany. Reflecting this expansion and variation, part of the exhibition space is used as the artist’s editing room and studio, where video, text, conversation, sound, and movement intersect to form a single work that the audience can directly experience.

The exhibition also features the domestic premiere of the new work 'By Mary Jo Freshley' (2023), the second video in the 'Pyohaerok' series, offering viewers a new visual and intellectual experience. The exhibition runs until March 30, 2025, at Seoul Museum of Art, 61 Deoksugung-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul.

Exhibition view of the three-person exhibition "Homo Narrans" by artists Noh Sang-ho, Lee Young-wook, and Jung Young-ho at Raheen Gallery.
[Photo by Raheen Gallery]

▲ Group Exhibition 'Homo Narrans' by Noh Sang-wook, Lee Young-wook, and Jung Young-ho = Rahin Gallery presents the group exhibition 'Homo Narrans' featuring artists Noh Sang-ho, Lee Young-wook, and Jung Young-ho.

We are narrative animals, so-called ‘Homo Narrans,’ who evolved from primates to humans and began sharing stories. However, entering the era of the information big bang, our attention needed to listen to and convey stories has gradually fragmented, leading to a ‘crisis of storytelling.’ In this context, 《Homo Narrans》 presents a testimonial space that preserves the self within fragmented stories and seeks to rediscover contemporary narratives.

Artist Noh Sang-ho explored our reality traversing between digital and analog through his representative series ‘The Great Chapbook’ and ‘Holy.’ He expresses our increasingly desensitized senses amid a flood of stimuli in a concrete manner, encouraging viewers to continuously engage their consciousness in response to these stimuli. His work suggests how our awareness is shaken amid overwhelming information and sensations.

Artist Lee Young-wook focused on the provocative and peripheral aspects of the surrounding environment. He captured these in repetitive forms expanded into ‘manipulated shapes.’ His work reflects on facets created by modern society, honestly revealing his own image and stories within. Viewers confront the conflict between sensory stimulation and inner reflection through his works.

Exhibition view of the group exhibition "Homo Narrans" by artists Noh Sang-ho, Lee Young-wook, and Jung Young-ho at Rahin Gallery.
[Photo by Rahin Gallery]

Artist Jung Young-ho concentrated on the ways in which the senses and emotions of the era are expressed in his ‘Double Retina’ series, exploring the subtle boundary between the world on screen and reality. His works reveal how easily technologically constructed images can destabilize our perceptual systems. Jung integrates this fragile perceptual structure into a storyboard format, allowing viewers to vividly experience the uneasy coexistence between the screen world and reality.

The exhibition not only diagnoses the crisis of storytelling but also translates it into artworks, providing viewers with clues to create new narratives. The works of the three artists, crossing various boundaries such as digital and analog, stimulation and reflection, reality and screen, reflect our era and guide us to explore how we can reconstruct and sustain stories within it. Ultimately, the exhibition reminds viewers of the lost stories and the concentration needed for them, offering a meaningful reflection on our identity as Homo Narrans. The exhibition runs until January 18, 2025, at Rahin Gallery, 50-gil Hangang-daero, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.