Delfina Foundation: Geumhyung Jeong
Private Collection: Unperformed Objects
Delfina Foundation runs a rich and varied programme of exhibitions, residencies and events from its home in central London. Its residency model includes periods of research around specific themes, such as The Politics of Food, Performance as Practice and The Public Domain. In 2017, Delfina Foundation embarked on a new thematic programme, Collecting as Practice, that brought together artists, curators, collectors and institutions to explore the philosophy, psychology and politics of collecting.
As part of the Korea/UK Season, Delfina Foundation presented Private Collection: Unperformed Objects, the first UK solo exhibition by South Korean artist Geumhyung Jeong (b. 1980). In her practice as choreographer, dancer and performer, Jeong constantly renegotiates the relationship between the human body and the objects that surround it. She 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 the installation at Delfina Foundation, emerging from a residency supported by SongEun Art & Cultural Foundation, Jeong explored 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 brought the narrative of these objects themselves into play, alongside decision-making and failure in the process of making performances.
Coinciding with her solo exhibition at Delfina Foundation, during the Frieze week, Tate Modern presented 7ways, a solo performance by Jeong in the form of seven ‘duets’ with everyday objects that take on an unsettling life of their own. The two ticketed performances at Tate Modern punctuated a week-long free presentation of Jeong’s work in the Tanks.
Private Collection: Unperformed Objects was presented as part of the Korea/UK Season, co-produced with Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK), SongEun Art & Cultural Foundation and Tate.
About Geumhyung Jeong
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.
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