Fondazione Modena Arti Visive is pleased to present Upgrade in Progress , the first solo show by Korean artist Geumhyung Jeong in an Italian contemporary art institution. The exhibition, curated by Diana Baldon, opens to the public at the Palazzina dei Giardini on Friday 6 March 2020.

The exhibition presents a new site-specific installation commissioned by Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, focused on the most recent project by Geumhyung Jeong. The artist has distinguished herself internationally in the field of performing arts for her choreographies at the same time amusing and disturbing in which she performs with electronic devices with humanoid features. Combining different means of expression - dance, theater, film and sculpture - the artist creates his works with a variety of prosthetic devices, mechanical and technological hardware tools, cosmetics, medical mannequins, inserting live performances that "demonstrate" how his objects are can be used. When he presents them in contexts dedicated to the visual arts, the artist arranges the objects according to strange sequences and arranges them on pedestals in very illuminated environments, imitating scientific archives and museum collections.

Born in 1980 in Seoul, where she lives and works, Jeong studied acting at Hoseo University in Asan (South Korea), dance and performance at the Korean National University of Arts and animation film at the Korean Academy of Film Arts (both in Seoul) . From the beginning of his career, the artist has dedicated his work to the study of the relationship between the human body and inanimate everyday objects through productions that combine languages and techniques from the fields of contemporary dance, puppetry and visual arts.

His performative practice involves ordinary movements and reduces the specific codes and conventions of art and theater to a minimum. During the physical interaction between his body and objects, it is increasingly ambiguous who controls whom. Instead, what becomes evident is the artist's investigation into the inexorable link between our body and the contemporary techno-sphere, that is the dominant model through which we experience our daily life. By challenging the false belief that we would be able to control reality, Jeong's works analyze how the elusive and changing nuances of technological development manifest themselves, which shape our perception, condition our choices and make us do experience of time and space.