Jiyoung Yoon. Seeing Things the Way We See the Moon

The daadgalerie presents with ›Jiyoung Yoon. Seeing Things the Way We See the Moon‹, the first solo exhibition by Korean artist Jiyoung Yoon in Europe. The exhibition brings together around twenty sculptures and video works from 2012 to the present day—including new works created during her fellowship at the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme in 2023/2024.

In her multi-layered work, which moves between sculpture, installation, text and video, Yoon explores the boundaries of perception, memory and visibility. Her works revolve around the question of how (bodily) experiences—both personal and collective—can be translated into spatial and media forms and material languages. Her artistic vocabulary often moves on the threshold between objecthood and absence, between intimacy and social observation.

Many of her sculptural works are created from materials with bodily connotations such as wax or silicone, which Yoon transforms into poetic and fragile constellations. The resulting scenarios are often based on narratives around beliefs, behaviours, and verbal expressions that stem from a particular culture, mythology or religion. In the video works, the analysis of materials and form is combined with language and sound, questioning the relationship between body and environment, inner and outer reality.

At the center of Yoon's practice is the tension between visibility and invisibility, perception and projection. As the title of the exhibition suggests—inspired by the poetic idea that we can only see the moon as the light makes it appear to us— Yoon investigates how meanings emerge, shift or remain hidden.

Some of the works shown in Berlin were first presented at the MMCA Seoul in 2024 as part of the Korean Art Prize shortlist exhibition. In the presentation curated by Melanie Roumiguière at the daadgalerie, these works are now shown in an expanded context—alongside earlier pieces that foreground the artist’s ongoing engagement with the body, language, and memory.

About the artist: Jiyoung Yoon (*1984 in South Korea) lives and works in Berlin and Seoul. She studied sculpture in Seoul and Chicago. Her works have been shown at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul; Art Sonje Center, Seoul; and the Seoul Museum of Art, among others. In 2023/2024 she was a fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme.