PRESENTATION:Koo Jeong A-EHM [Event Horizon Malmö]

The work of Koo Jeong A incorporates objects with the capacity for transformation, still and moving images along with sound and scent. These disparate mediums are combined with elements such as wind, gravity, and site-specific reconfigurations and interventions into architectural space. Often using the commonplace matter to conjure alternative realities, Koo Jeong A traces a certain poetic within the nature of forms that permeate the universe.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Malmö Konsthall Archive

Koo Jeong A traverses the above details with a flexible, rational movement where order and disorder, perception and memory, beauty and practicality are in continuous ebb and flow. A uniquely spiritual and connected individual, with influences spanning Taoist philosophy, human cognition, and the science of Qi, Koo’s work is often produced in reference to her beliefs on the enfolding of energies and how this can bring people together through shared experience “EHM [Event Horizon Malmö]”, the summer’s exhibition at Malmö Konsthall, consists of “OooOoO Malmö” (2024): a skateable sculpture constructed entirely of wood. Koo Jeong A, who represents South Korea at this year’s Venice Biennale, has worked with Malmö Konsthall’s distinctive exhibition space and created a star-shaped sculpture wedged between the building’s supporting columns. Malmö Konsthall has built the exhibition upon the vision of architect Klas Anshelm to use the space as a playing field for artistic experimentation. It is also an invitation to the unique skate community of Malmö that gathers on the square outside the Konsthall during the summer months. The door to the art gallery represents a boundary that we as an institution have a duty to challenge. The square outside Malmö Konsthall represents a meeting place for Malmö’s skaters, the energy created there is both informal and improvised. The result is the exhibition “EHM [Event Horizon Malmö]”. Site and space function as points of departure in Koo Jeong A’s practice. The immersive work “OooOoO Malmö” is a unique and playful transformation of Malmö Konsthall’s exhibition room. Koo Jeong A works with ideas of immaterialism, endlessness and levitation, which in the instance of the exhibition translates to a skateable sculpture. They often work within public space and have previously created similar sculptures that interact with skate communities in places including Vassiviere (France), Milan (Italy) and Uiwang-si (South Korea). This year, related works will also be carried out at Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and in The Tuileries Gardens in Paris.

Photo: Koo Jeong A, OooOoO. Photo: Adrian de Weerdt, Courtesy the artist and Malmö Konsthall

Info: Curators: Mats Stjernstedt, Seolhui Lee and Jacob Fabricius, Malmö Konsthall, S:t Johannesgatan 7, Malmö, Sweeden, Duration: 1/6-25/8/2024, Days & Hours: Tue & Thu-Sun 11:00-17:00, Wed 11:00-19:00, https://malmokonsthall.se/