That “Madrid smells like garlic” attributed to Victoria Beckham a couple of decades ago offended many people, almost always for the wrong reasons. It is a shame, for example, that it did not serve to trigger a debate about the aromas that characterize our cities. Perhaps because smell is, of all the senses, the one that has endured the worst fame. Plato considered that it provokes less elevated pleasures than taste or hearing, and Kant called it misleading and superfluous. And yet, it has an intense power of evocation.
Koo Jeong A, a South Korean artist who this year represents his country at the Venice Biennale that opens its doors to the public on April 20, has started from that attribute in
Odorama cities,
his project for the Korean pavilion
.
In his case, smell is a way of evoking the territory, but also a poetic medium that encapsulates the idea of a common future for a country divided for historical and political reasons. Koo has created a scent that represents the Korean peninsula, and for its preparation he has not only counted on expert perfumers, but also on the testimonies of more than 600 people from all over the world, collected throughout the summer of 2023 and documented written. All of them were asked: “What is your memory of the aroma of Korea?” Visitors to the pavilion will now be able to access the aromas resulting from all these responses, some of which were developed in extensive statements, and others in short phrases such as “humidifier smells”, “fishy smell”, “oriental medicine”, “ grass in Pyongyang” or single words like “kimchi”, “cabbage” or “seaweed”.
“It all started with the idea of portraying the Korean peninsula,” Koo Jeung A, who requests that elle be referred to with non-binary pronouns, tells ICON Design. "So we needed olfactory memories from both North and South Korea, and also from both Koreans and foreigners, people who went there for tourism or to work, including diplomats or researchers."
Koo, whose work is represented by several galleries, such as the Madrid-based Albarrán Bourdais, has long used smells in his artistic practice. He has collaborated with the fashion and perfumery brand Loewe, lending his image in one of their recent campaigns along with other personalities such as the actors Aubrey Plaza and Murray Bartlett, the filmmaker Takeshi Kitano or the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. In 1996 he made an olfactory installation titled
Pullover's Wardrobe
in a small closet in his Paris studio
. Afterwards he continued with other individual projects and participation in group exhibitions. In 2016 he intervened on disused platforms at London's Charing Cross underground station with lighting and architectural devices to which he added an intense smell. That first
Odorama
was the origin of the project for this
Biennale
. “After turning that station into a stage for the smell, I wanted to continue, and I thought that if I could do it in London I could also do it in Vancouver or Moscow, or wherever I was working,” he explains.
The Korean pavilion, a glass and steel cylinder located in the Giardini of the Venice Biennale, is about to commemorate its thirtieth anniversary. Its creation was an initiative of the artist Paik Nam-june, after obtaining the Golden Lion in the 1993 edition representing Germany. Paik intended to suggest the possibility of holding joint exhibitions by both Koreas. However, since it was first used in 1995, it has only exhibited South Korean artists.
The original purpose of the pavilion is very present in this year's project, whose artistic directors are curators Jacob Fabricius and Seolhui Lee. “We had the idea of a common future vision for Korea,” notes Koo Jeong A. “The pavilion represents our idea of the collective thinking of a joint nation. “We wanted to advocate for a future that we build together.” In a subtle and unemphatic way, his idea connects with the general motto applied by curator Adriano Pedrosa for this Biennale,
Stranieri ovunque
(“Foreigners everywhere”): in a world where everyone is a foreigner, no one is. Or it shouldn't be.
Visitors will find a space that Koo describes as “pretty empty.” The floor has been intervened with engravings of the infinity symbol, to which are added two floating sculptures in the shape of the Moebius strip. All of this refers to the ideas of the immaterial, the weightless and the eternal. A bronze humanoid figure atop a phosphorescent pedestal spreads the perfume through a vapor exhaled through its nostrils. This creature in turn replicates the character used by Koo in his recent 3D animation works –
MYSTERIOUSSS, CURIOUSSA
and
CHAMNAWANA (true me & i),
all from 2017 –, a post-human fetal creature. On the other hand, up to 16 aromas have been developed (with names such as “smell of rice” or “fish market”), which Koo defines as “experiments”, also present in the pavilion, although only one of them acquires the category of commercially exploitable perfume, having been certified after meeting all legally required safety requirements.
One of the reasons why smell has not enjoyed much appreciation in classical philosophy may lie in its subjectivity and its association with factors outside of reason, such as instinct and intuition. This is precisely what Nietzsche rescued in his work
From Ecce Homo. How you become what you are
, published in 1888, where he stated: “My genius is in my nose.” On the other hand, perhaps those who once criticized posh Spice for
its
supposed assessments of the Spanish aroma feel compensated by a study led by a researcher from the University of Cambridge that concluded that London smells like an exhaust pipe and Barcelona smells like nature and meal. The intense link between smell and memory has been the subject of other scientific studies – some of them have concluded that people at greater risk of developing Alzheimer's lose their olfactory ability sooner – but also of literary works. Thus, in the famous madeleine episode from Marcel Proust's
In Search of Lost Time
, it is not only the taste of the bun dipped in tea that awakens the remembrance that will give rise to this great literary saga. The French author writes here: “When nothing remains of an ancient past, after the death of beings, after the destruction of things, only the smell and the taste […] remain alive for a long time.” Exposing ourselves to a scent that we have not returned to since childhood, no matter how fleeting the experience, allows us to rekindle memories that remained buried in the depths of the subconscious.
In fact, many of the testimonies collected by Koo Jeong A allude to childhood memories. Some are pleasant, and others not so much: the peculiar smell of a grandparents' bedroom, that of water contaminated by an industrial complex, the breath of a drunk father or the cinnamon of an apple pie that is cooking in the oven. Koo Jeong A treasures his own original memory, which from his point of view represents his country. “My personal Korea is the smell of the magnolias in the garden before spring arrives, which is very special,” he recalls. “It happens when the air is still very cold, something I really like. With this cold air is when more oxygen enters your nose, which for me is a very personal memory, and also very characteristic of Korea.” He also defines what all these smells represent, a national characteristic that is difficult to translate into other languages: “There is a concept in Korea that we call
Kibun
, a physical and mental state. When you have a lot, you can do everything. And if you have less, you are obviously less motivated and have less imagination. That is what the smell of Korea represents to me.”
Its purpose is for the pavilion to be an immersive place that serves as a welcome for all those who visit it. Additionally, there will be outdoor seating and other elements that will connect indoors and outdoors. Thus, the two Koreas will be united by similar or divergent memories that materialize in a smell, but any visitor will also be invited to join in this common experience: “We have developed a fairly porous project, to welcome and connect the people. Those who visit will be able to discuss who smells the perfume first and share their experiences. It will be something very relaxing.”
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