Yeondoo Jung "Innerscape" Solo Exhibition

Yeondoo Jung's "Innerscape" solo exhibition runs from May 15 to June 30 at Emmanuel Perrotin gallery. Yeondoo Jung (born 1969) is one of Korea’s most representative contemporary artists, known for his dramatic artificial or simulated natural landscapes. His diverse explorations span photography, video, installation, and performance; his works oscillate between reality and imagination, virtuality and illusion, the unreal and the artificial, questioning both photography and cinema. Through dramatic performances and sets, he presents artificial or feigned bright scenes that should not normally be seen. At first glance, the images deceive the audience, who then slowly and carefully realize their ambiguous truth, much like entering the virtual world of Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges.

Here, he presents the unnaturally "pre-ordained" photograph series (2006–2010), constructing figures within pastoral-looking landscapes, fully displaying an extraordinary space of illusion and imagination. Most dramatically, "Magic Cinema" (2009) uses a large movie screen and two small TV screens to broadcast a young magician performing live before theater audiences, transforming various landscape scenes through different special effects. From an empty stage, it becomes a living room, then shifts to an outdoor scene, pushed by set design into bright, picturesque scenery, finally turning into a forest of dead trees. The entire atmosphere changes with dramatic lighting shifts, evolving in thousands of ways over 55 minutes, resembling a tale from One Thousand and One Nights.

"Memory Data" (2008) presents various natural scenes in a theater format through construction and deconstruction. The continuity of each scene constantly depicts pastoral poetry, awakening real memories through clever combinations of sets, objects, and lighting, while subjecting viewers' real experiences to simulacra. Finally, "Six Moments" (2010) is Yeondoo Jung’s new attempt at video art, presenting street scenes from six areas of New York: shops, pedestrians, and cars. Time and space are removed, leaving static images frozen in motion. In silence, the noisy metropolis suddenly becomes unusually quiet. The video slowly pans from left to right without interruption, where only shadows float and move under unreal, artificial light.