Jiyoung Yoon: Seeing Things the Way We See the Moon

The daadgalerie presents “Jiyoung Yoon. Seeing things the way we see the moon”, the first solo exhibition in Europe by Korean artist Jiyoung Yoon. The show brings together around twenty sculptures and video works from 2012 to the present, including new pieces created during her fellowship at the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme in 2023/2024.

Yoon’s multi-layered practice moves between sculpture, installation, text and video, exploring the boundaries of perception, memory and visibility. Her work investigates how bodily experiences—both personal and collective—can be translated into spatial forms, media and material languages. Her artistic vocabulary often balances objecthood and absence, intimacy and social observation.

Many sculptures are made from materials with bodily connotations, such as wax or silicone, which Yoon transforms into fragile, poetic constellations. These works frequently draw on narratives of belief, behaviour, and verbal expression rooted in specific cultures, mythologies or religions. In her videos, the analysis of materials and form is combined with language and sound, examining the relationship between body and environment, inner and outer realities.

At the centre of Yoon’s practice is the tension between visibility and invisibility, perception and projection. As the exhibition title suggests—drawing on the poetic notion that we can only see the moon as its light makes it appear—Yoon considers how meaning emerges, shifts or remains hidden.

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