SPACE June 2025 (No. 691)
Exhibition view of ‘For All That Breathes on Earth: Jung Youngsun and Collaborators’ / Image courtesy of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea / ©Kim Yongkwan
The exhibition ‘For All That Breathes on Earth’, which was first held last year at MMCA Seoul, is now on show again at Venice as a part of the San Marco Art Centre (SMAC)’s opening exhibition.
SMAC – where the exhibition is being held – is located on the second floor of the Procuratie Vecchie which surrounds the northern side of Piazza San Marco. Procuratie Vecchie, which used to be the residence of Venetian prosecutors in the 16th century, was repurposed in 1982 as an office space for the insurance and asset management group Generali. After undergoing repairs and renovation from 2017 to 2022 overseen by David Chipperfield Architects, parts of the exhibition room of the building were opened to the public last year. Displaying 24 key works by the landscape architect Jung Youngsun, grouping them under 7 themes as before at MMCA Seoul, this exhibition also focuses on the ‘collaborators’.
While reconfiguring the original exhibition to match the unique conditions of SMAC, the exhibition was redesigned with the intention of imparting a sense of Korea’s landscaping philosophy, and the history of landscape architecture in Korea to the Italian public through Jung’s works. The explanations of each theme were printed on traditional Korean fabric in buttercup-yellow, as East Asian buttercups hold a special meaning for Jung. The cabinet and show window were made from Korean white birch trees inspired by ru, the traditional wooden pavilion in Korea. The furniture, which was custom-made and installed in the connecting passageways between rooms, will be used again in the later exhibitions following this iteration at SMAC. The exhibition will be held throughout the 2025 Venice Biennale from May 9 to July 13.
