KOO JEONG A

KOO JEONG A focuses on incidental occurrences that emerge from patient observation. Invisible phenomena become tangible through sounds and smells–the invented and the found become closely interwoven in the process. Delicate phenomena sensitize our senses and open our imagination. KOO JEONG A’s work is characterized by an exceptionally quiet language and restrained gestures: a few precisely placed elements are enough to create an effect. Kunsthaus Bregenz offers an ideal setting for this. Despite its size and spaciousness, it allows the seemingly marginal to come into its own. Elegance, memory, and an almost spiritual atmosphere characterize both KOO JEONG A’s work and Peter Zumthor’s architecture.

For the Milan Triennial in winter 2019, KOO JEONG A built a fully functional skate park. The outdoor facility was not just an architectural structure for sports but also an aesthetic and poetic space for physical experience, a combination of space, movement, and perception that is typical of KOO JEONG A’s work. KOO JEONG A represented South Korea at the Venice Biennale in 2024. As with their skate park in Milan and earlier exhibitions in Arles, Liverpool, São Paulo, and Seoul, they also referred to the shape of the Möbius strip in Venice. The symbol of infinity was engraved into the floors of the pavilion and rendered in sculptural form as a bench. Space can thus be experienced as both a physical movement and as a way of thinking; it is cyclical, open, and permeable. A comic-like sculpture in an adjoining room enhanced the sensory experience by emitting scented mist at irregular intervals. This olfactory moment expanded visitors’ perception beyond the visible allowing space to be not only viewed but also breathed and absorbed.

Here, too, it becomes apparent that KOO JEONG A’s works thrive not on meaning or interpretation but on presence, atmosphere, and hidden flows of energy. At a time when art often has to be loud, explanatory, and visually striking, KOO JEONG A’s art stands for the power of the quiet.

KOO JEONG A (b. 1967, Seoul) lives and works “everywhere”. In 2024 they represented South Korea at the 60th Venice Biennale. Their most significant exhibitions include OooOoO at the Malmö Konsthall in 2024, Dance with Demons at Fondation Beyeler, Basel, in 2024, [YONG DONG] at Pilar Corrias, London, in 2022, KOO JEONG A at the Galerie Eva Presenhuber, New York, and It’s Urgent! At LUMA, Arles, both in 2020, OooOoO at the Milan Triennial in 2019, and 16:07 at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in 2012. In 2025—26 their exhibition LAND OF OUSSS [KANGSE] is on view at LUMA, Arles, and the installation HAUS DER MAGNET at Haus der Kunst in Munich.