Korea Portrayed with the 'Scent of Memory' at the Venice Biennale

Korean Pavilion Officially Opens at 4 PM on April 17
Korean Cities Collect Scent Memories Tied to Hometowns
Various Stories Gathered and Exhibited as 17 Scents

The 60th Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion, celebrating its 30th anniversary, will be filled with the "Scent of Korea."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Korea Arts & Culture Education Service (Chairman Jeong Byeong-guk) held a press briefing at the Arko Art Center on the 21st to announce the exhibition plan for the 2024 Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition Korean Pavilion, which will be held from April 20 to November 24.

Previously, in March last year, Lee Seol-hee, chief curator of Kunsthal Aarhus, and Jakob Fabricius, director of ArtHub Copenhagen, were selected as co-artistic directors to oversee the exhibition, and artist Koo Jeong-a was chosen as the representative artist of the Korean Pavilion. Since the opening of the Korean Pavilion in 1995, this is the first time that co-artistic directors have prepared the exhibition at the Venice Biennale.

This year's Korean Pavilion exhibition, "Koo Jeong-a - Odorama City," began with the question, "Would you share the scent memories of the city or hometown you cherish?" From June last year, a broad preliminary research was conducted through a three-month online and offline survey "Open Call," including Koreans, Korean adoptees, and North Korean defectors.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Based on the "memories of scent" collected from over 600 people worldwide, 17 newly created scents symbolizing Korea will be presented in the exhibition space. To visually transform the scents, wooden pieces shaped like M?bius strips functioning as diffusers are installed on the exhibition floor, and the concept of "OUSSS," a repeated theme created by the artist that infinitely transforms, is applied throughout the exhibition.

At the briefing, artist Koo said, "While dealing with the self-portrait of Korea, I thought it was insufficient to limit the boundaries only to the Korean Peninsula, so I revised the exhibition midway. It was a precious experience to attempt collaboration with people I had never met before and never could have met until now."

The two artistic directors explained, "Through the scent journey of the Korean Pavilion, we will present an exhibition that contemplates the expanding definition of Koreans in the future."

Living as foreigners abroad, artist Koo and the two directors emphasized, "Through the 'scent dispersed everywhere without boundaries,' which aligns with the Biennale theme 'The Foreigners Are Everywhere,' we aim to reflect on the existence of foreigners."

The 60th Venice Biennale will run from April 20 to November 24 (preview from April 17 to 19). The Korean Pavilion will hold its official opening ceremony at 4 p.m. on April 17. The 600 stories collected for the exhibition will be released on the Korean Pavilion website on the day of the opening ceremony.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.