OUSSS – a film by KOO JEONG A
PALAZZO DIEDO
Fondamenta Diedo a Santa Fosca, Cannaregio 2386, Venice, Italy
Screening every Thursday during the Venice Biennale from 18 April, 10am–6:30pm (duration 30 minutes).
OUSSS by KOO JEONG A is a 3D film project developed between 2014 and 2022 that was launched during Paris+ art fair in 2022. The work centres around the glow-in-the-dark skatepark OTRO, which was developed by the artist between 2007 and 2012 on Vassivière Island in Beaumont-du-Lac, France. With its unique bowl-like curvatures that are connected by three tunnels, this 2300- square foot phosphorescent structure is inspired by the sinuous forms of a lake shore, allowing its users to skate across a humanmade landscape, becoming a part of its natural surroundings. Since the realisation of this first skatepark, KOO has gone on to create similar structures in various locations over the world.
As alluded to by the title of KOO's new film, the OTRO skatepark becomes a protagonist within the work, forming part of the artist's ever-expanding term, 'OUSSS'. Used by KOO since the 1990s, 'OUSSS' can be both a root, affix, stem and suffix, but also a term in and of itself. It is suggestive of an enigmatic and morphing movement, signalling matter and energy existing within the cracks of our universe. Through 'OUSSS', KOO continues their interest in conjuring alternative realities within the material of everyday life. These are the cracks that exist within our known reality, through which the artist traces tacit knowledges and experiences that would otherwise remain unknown and invisible.
The film takes us on a journey through various forms, with shots of curved hills, mountains, valleys and grasslands contrasted with the luminous otherworldliness of the OTRO skatepark. Dug deep into the ground, this structure becomes part of the landscape, fusing art with everyday life through KOO's playful approach. These topographical tensions extend to several digitally rendered elements within the film, as we start to identify resonant geometric contours in the fluid movement of smoke wisps, diagrammatic overlapping shapes, and three-dimensional typographic renderings of the word 'OUSSS', all of which float off the screen. By choosing to make the film in 3D, KOO allows the viewer to experience the expanded perception that is embedded within the world of 'OUSSS'. This is a world in which the clear-cut boundaries between physical and immaterial worlds dissolve, and our experience extends beyond that which we can objectively see, into what might be sensed in between.
Through watching the film, KOO's invites us into an experiment. With its filmic techniques and stereoscopic format, the work poses the question as to what it might feel like to experience 'OUSSS' in real time, such that our senses are simultaneously awakened and sent into a space of dreaming. The OTRO skatepark is the medium through which we enter this dream space; it is a structure that absorbs light energy during the day and radiates it outward during the night. Our experience of 'OUSSS' is like that of the hypnagogic moments just before we fall asleep, when our concrete perception begins to unravel, and other sensorial and emotional possibilities start to arise.
Presented by Berggruen Arts & Culture and Anna Lena Films in conjunction with KOO JEONG A: ODORAMA CITIES at the Korean Pavilion, the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia
