Geumhyung Jeong: Private Collection: Unperformed Objects

Delfina Foundation announces Private Collection: Unperformed Objects, the first UK solo show by South Korean artist Geumhyung Jeong. The exhibition has emerged as one of several co-commissions as part of Delfina Foundation’s ground-breaking Collecting as Practice programme of residencies for artists and collectors. It is presented as part of the Korea/UK Season, co-produced with Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK), SongEun Art & Cultural Foundation and Tate.

In her practice as choreographer, dancer and performer, Jeong constantly renegotiates the relationship between the human body and the objects that surround it. She has built up a collection of plain everyday objects upon which she bestows a bizarre, disconcerting life through an intense and risky interaction with her own body to challenge notions of sexuality, technology and the female body. In 2016, Jeong exhibited her complete collection at Atelier Hermes in Seoul as the recipient of the Hermès Foundation Missulsang Award. For this new installation at Delfina Foundation, emerging from a residency supported by SongEun Art & Cultural Foundation, Jeong explores the relationship between her “collection” and her creative process. Jeong has selected “unperformed objects”—mannequins, vacuum cleaners, training machines and medical apparatus with a latent potential. The exhibition brings the narrative of these objects themselves into play, alongside decision-making and failure in the process of making performances.

In the gallery, these objects are clinically displayed on plinths, under strip lighting. Video monitors show clips of the “performed objects” not present, those modified by Jeong and activated in durational performances where they are first used in intended and routine ways before Jeong’s movements morph into erotic, obsessive, or antagonistic actions. Jeong feeds her own energy back into these inanimate objects, positing the female body as the locus of reproductive responsibility within a gendered, exploitative economy.

In this light, the “unperformed objects” become a collection of relics of a notion of civilization that Jeong seeks to challenge.

Performance at Tate
Coinciding with the solo exhibition at Delfina Foundation and Frieze week, Tate Modern will present 7ways, a solo performance by Geumhyung Jeong in the form of seven “duets” with everyday objects that take on an unsettling life of their own. Two ticketed performances on October 3 at 5:30pm and October 5 at 7pm at Tate Modern will punctuate a week-long free presentation of Jeong’s work in The Tanks.
More here. 

Biography
Born in 1980, Geumhyung Jeong is a South Korea-based choreographer, dancer and performer. Jeong studied Acting at Hoseo University in Asan, Dance and Performance at the Korean National University of Arts in Seoul, and Animation Film at the Korean Academy of Film Arts in Seoul. Her works have been presented at the Atelier Hermès, Seoul; New Museum Triennial, New York; Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Zürich; Brigittines International Festival, Brussels; SPIELART Festival, Munich; ImPulsTanz Festival, Vienna; iDANS Festival, Istanbul; Contemporary Art Museum of Ujazdowski, Warsaw; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; PACT Zollverein, Essen; and many others. Jeong was in residence at Delfina Foundation in spring 2017 in partnership with SongEun Art & Cultural Foundation.
 

Autumn residencies
Delfina Foundation also announces its autumn season, focused on open research and professional development with a range of cultural practitioners. 

Artists-in-residence:
Arwa Al Neami (Saudi Arabia)
Farah Al Qasimi (UAE) 
Moath Alofi (Saudi Arabia) 
Nojoud Alsudairi (Saudi Arabia)
Ahmad Angawi (Saudi Arabia)
Kevin Beasley (USA)
Daniel Jacoby (Peru/The Netherlands)
Eric N. Mack (USA)
Khaled Malas (Syria)
Alice Shintani (Brazil)

Collectors-in-residence:
Daisuke Miyatsu (Japan)
Rudy Tseng (Taiwan)

Residency supporters include: Abu Dhabi Festival, Atassi Foundation, Maraya Art Center, Mondriaan Fonds, Simon Lee Gallery, SP-Arte, The Walton Family Foundation, and Delfina Foundation’s family of supporters.

Keep up to date with Delfina Foundation’s programme by checking its What’s On page and subscribing to its newsletter.