WANG YUXUAN
A Socialism Utopia The Developmental Path of Socialism Art in DPRK 
 (1948-present) 2018
Project Proposal: Exhibition Curation By Wang Yuxuan
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!1
WANG YUXUAN
INTRODUCTION My interest in researching the art of the DPRK comes from my professional experience. Working as the marketing executive and store manager in POP-UP BEIJING - an antique store, art dealer and lifestyle boutique, give a direct access to the art and artists we represent. One of our collaboration partners, the Koryo Studio, brought my eyes to a set of mysterious reconnaissance artworks. They came directly from the Mansudae Art Studio, North Korea, the government central art studio of one, if not the most, isolated and unearthly nations. Growing up experiencing the similar political and social institutions, I am fascinated to explore the origin of the art of the DPRK, its structures, its unique kind of creativity, and the development based on its own political dynamics.
DEVELOPMENT As the first supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Il-sung ruled from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. During his rule, North Korea was widely characterized as a totalitarian state with widespread human rights abuses, including mass executions and prison camps. Back then, the art of the DPRK was also strictly limited as tools for political uses, almost all of the paintings and sculptures were of the socialist realist genre, propaganda posters and leader statues. After Kim Il-sung's death in 1994, directives on painting were relaxed and sometimes completely abolished under Kim Jong-il. New art forms, including a kind of impressionism peculiar to North Korea, rose to complement posters. Art forms other than socialist realism are sparsely seen in the patriotic films that dominated that culture from 1949 to 1994, and the reawakened architecture, calligraphy, fabric work and neo-traditional painting, has occurred from 1994 to date. This research is practice-based, its purpose being to make a thorough inquiry of the unique art form and its path of development in North Korea. The research will explore the thinking and artistic creations of its own artists, analyze the political influences implemented domestically and internationally and compare views from domestic and foreign artists and culture specialists. Based on the the existing art of North Korea, this research is particularly concerned with its push toward a progressive-utopian future. My case study references are mainly based on the art works from different eras within North Korea form Mansudae Art Studio (from 1948 till now) , also artworks from international artists, including Chinese artist Wang Guofeng, whom from a similar social system and invited by North Korea government as official photographer, and British artist, film director and cultural specialist Nicholas
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!2
WANG YUXUAN
Bonner, who has studied and witnessed North Korea’s rapid changes in person for over two decades.
METHODS The theoretical analysis of The Developmental Path of Socialist Art in the DPRK will be carried out using the following resources: interviews with artists, curators, and critics who are in these fields, fieldwork research at art exhibitions and festivals (biennales, triennials, and other art fairs), literary references including exhibition catalogues, archives, art reviews, and all pertinent books on my reading lists. This project-based practice will be structured through communications, discussions, and in cooperation with artists. I will work on this exhibition proposal as a curator. The purposes of my socially interactive exhibition are as follows: (1) To identify the origin and characteristics of the art of the DPRK among three leaderships and two main periods; (2) To introduce the latest trends of art from North Korea in order to give audience a more comprehensive view of insight into its culture; (3) To explore both the political and moral side of the DPRK by looking though its art, and also collaborating with KORYO KIDS – a program delivering high-nutrition food parcels to orphanages in North Korea, raising the audiences’ awareness of political bias; (4) To reveal the viewing angle from three different sources of artists: North Korean artists, Asian socialist artists and western capitalist artists, in order to inform audiences’ awareness of the influence of people under different social structure environments; (5) To discuss the potential development and future trends of art in the DPRK, and to highlight the utopian socialism fantasy of the nation.
CURATING EXHIBITION AS THE KEY PRACTICE METHOD The exhibition I am working on aims to delineate a comprehensive actuality of the art of the DPRK, and establish a developmental path though three different angles: How do different types of artworks in the DPRK reflect the artists’ creativity and the country’s socialist utopian prospect? How its direction gradually shifts over time under different leaderships? How international artists from different backgrounds view North Korea? What is the future direction for the art of the DPRK?
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!3
WANG YUXUAN
This exhibition will be carried out in two sections: ‘The Brush of the Revolutionary’ and ‘The Lens of the Out-comers’. ‘The Brush of the Revolutionary’ will focus on the a series of curated art works from North Korea, mostly unsigned from its national art institute Mansudae Art Studio, from 1950s to present day. ‘The Lens of the Out-comers’ will show works from two international artists, Chinese artist Wang Guofeng, a North Korean government assigned official photographer; and British artist, film director, producer and cultural specialist, Nicholas Bonner, who made four films related to North Korea, and has studied and witnessed North Korea’s rapid changes in person since the 1990s.
The Brush of the Revolutionary With the new open door policy of North Korea, the world’s attention is not only drawn in by its political perspective, but also its people, culture, and art. Naturally, for such a centralized socialist government like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the mainframe of its arts is propaganda, giant fists, fields of golden corn, or bloody US soldiers impaled on bayonets. It may be fascinating, mystifying or just plain disturbing however, as other socialist countries have shed their ideologies, it’s certainly unique. The art of the DPRK is state-supported, prolific and serves to educate people about the government and revolution. This gives artists freedom of subject matter, except for abstract art because something open to interpretation is without a message. Nine unsigned works from Mansudae Art Studio by DPRK artists are selected to demonstrate the propaganda art of North Korea. The names of these artworks are: 'Wave the Red Flag and Implement the Party’s Economic Policy’, ‘Love Our Machines like the Anti-Japanese Guerrillas Who Loved Their Weapons Like the Pupils of their Own Eyes’, ‘Seed Revolution is the Core of Agricultural Development’, ‘US Imperialists Cannot Let Their Children Know the Truth’, ‘Don︎’t Be Fooled by Their Art of Disguise!’, ‘Destroy US Imperialists!’, ‘Unite the Nation to Crush the US Nuclear War Plan’, ‘Don’t Worry About the Construction’, ‘150-day Campaign, Let︎s All Advance!’ and ‘Let︎s Introduce Successful Scientific Study to Economic Development’. Eva Hesse once said: “Art and life are inseparable.” The uniqueness of the social system and its isolationist nature also leads the art of North Korea to develop in a distinct way. The main stream of art works are generally produced in the aesthetics of Socialist realism, under the influence of Soviet and Japanese visual expression, to convey a sentimental loyalty to the social system. Also, with the development of the society and the younger generation of
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!4
WANG YUXUAN
leadership with new policies, there are new forms and subjects budding and sprouting with a significant style shift. Two of the most recent collections organized and created by Koryo Studio with Plastered 8 and North Korean artists and architects are amazingly innovative: one is ‘Utopia Tours’, which describes innovative designs and ideas which all suggest a new kind of idealism in North Korea; intertwining nature, tradition and technology. The other is ‘The Beautiful Future’, which represent the rituals of life in today’s China set on a stage of early Chinese socialism. As outsiders looking in, the producers imagine a China that retains its socialist traditions, with icons being the great symbols of Chinese society today. Four unsigned works are selected from each of these two collections, of which are: ‘Beautiful Future I’, ‘Beautiful Future II’, ‘Beautiful Future III’ and ‘Beautiful Future IV’; ‘Utopia Tours I’, ‘Utopia Tours II’, ‘Utopia Tours III’ and ‘Utopia Tours IV’.
The Lens of the Out-comers Aesop said: “Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either.” One of my core aspirations for this exhibition is to demonstrate the culture and art of DPRK in a comprehensive structure. The work of two artists with different social backgrounds and life experiences, yet they are both deeply involved in the art and culture perspective of North Korea are selected for this exhibition. Chinese artist Wang Guofeng is known for his accuracy in details and magnificent beauty in momentum with his creation. He also from a similar social system and has regularly been invited by North Korea government as an official photographer for years. Five of his works will be selected for this exhibition, they are: ‘North Korea 2011 No.2’, ‘North Korea 2012 No. 1’, ‘North Korea 2012 No.3’, ‘GTM+9 Time Zone No.1’, ‘North Korea 2012 No.5’, ‘North Korea 2013 No.1’, ‘North Korea 2014 - English Class at Pyongyang International Football School’, ‘Passion…’, ’It is Neither the Past, Nor the Present, Nor the Future’, ’North Korea 2015 - Restaurant Waitress No.3’, ’North Korea 2015 - Photography Critic, Central Committee of Photographer Association of DPRK’, ‘North Korea 2015 - Staff No.5, Bureau of Telecommunications’, ’North Korea 2015 - Government Car Driver’, ‘North Korea 2015 - Female Coach No.1 of Shooting Range’, ‘North Korea 2015 - Female Coach No.3 of Shooting Range’, ‘North Korea 2015 - Teacher of Pyongyang University of Music’, ‘North Korea 2015 - Vegetable Picking Assistant of Vegetable Research Institute’, ‘North Korea 2015 - Female Athlete of Taekwondo No.1’, and ‘North Korea 2015 - Writer and Poet’.
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!5
WANG YUXUAN
British artist, film director, producer and cultural specialist Nicholas Bonner, who studied and witnessed North Korean rapid changes in person for over two decades, produced 4 films which probe into the life and believes of the people of North Korea, they are: ‘The Game of Their Lives (2002)', ‘A State of Mind (2004)’, ‘Comrade Kim Goes Flying (2012)’ and ‘Aim High in Creation’. These four films will be played on four walls of a dark room simultaneously, with channel headphones for audiences to wear for obtained audio for each film.
EXHIBITION DISPLAY METHOD IN DETAIL As the instruction image shows above, this exhibition is planed to be held at Today Art Museum, the earliest and most influential private art museum in China. The display of the exhibition is designed to be divided into three main parts, based on the central philosophy,
which creates a look from outside (The Lens of the Out-comers), and an outreach from within (The Brush of the Revolutionary). On one hand, the blue line marked walls will be displaying photography works from Wang Guofeng, and the green line marked walls will be designed as a dark room for Nicholas Bonner’s film display. This two areas together will create the outskirt section, The Lens of the Out-comers, symoolizes the two international artists look into North Korea from the outside. On the other hand, the red line marked walls will be
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!6
WANG YUXUAN
displaying hand painted artworks from DPRK artists, which includes gouache and oil paintings, become the inner section of this exhibition - The Brush of the Revolutionary. By putting these art works in the middle of the exhibition hall, they symbolize the isolation of North Korea, like an island in the middle, mysteries, autarky, pollyanna but also being watched by the outside world. By walking though the whole exhibition, audiences will be put in constant paradoxical circumstances: looking on one side, it’s the utopian world made of idolizations and fantasies, on the other side, it’s the inquisitive viewing angle though the outsider’s lens, search and hoping to discover the truth from the this ‘wonderland’ country and its people. This display method is mean to trigger the audiences to view and think from both sides, to look at DPRK as a whole in a more comprehensive method.
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!7
WANG YUXUAN
LIST OF WORKS The Brush of the Revolutionary
Wave the Red Flag and Implement the Party’s Economic Policy from Mansudae Art Studio
Love Our Machines like the Anti-Japanese Guerrillas Who Loved Their Weapons Like the Pupils of their Own Eyes from Mansudae Art Studio
Seed Revolution is the Core of Agricultural Development from Mansudae Art Studio
US Imperialists Cannot Let Their Children Know the Truth from Mansudae Art Studio
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!8
WANG YUXUAN
Don︎’t Be Fooled by Their Art of Disguise! from Mansudae Art Studio
Destroy US Imperialists from Mansudae Art Studio
Unite the Nation to Crush the US Nuclear War Plan from Mansudae Art Studio
Don’t Worry About the Construction from Mansudae Art Studio
150-day Campaign, Let︎s All Advance! from Mansudae Art Studio
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
Let︎s Introduce Successful Scientific Study to Economic Development from Mansudae Art Studio
!9
WANG YUXUAN
Beautiful Future I Unsigned by North Korean artist
Beautiful Future III Unsigned by North Korean artist
Beautiful Future IV Unsigned by North Korean artist
Beautiful Future II Unsigned by North Korean artist
Utopia Tours I
Utopia Tours II
Unsigned by North Korean architects
Unsigned by North Korean architects
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!10
WANG YUXUAN
Utopia Tours III
Utopia Tours IV
Unsigned by North Korean architects
Unsigned by North Korean architects
The Lens of the Out-comers
North Korea 2011 No.2 Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2012 No.1 Photographed by Wang Guofeng
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!11
WANG YUXUAN
North Korea 2012 No.3 Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2013 No.1 Photographed by Wang Guofeng
GTM+9 Time Zone No.1 Photographed by Wang Guofeng
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!12
WANG YUXUAN
North Korea 2012 No.5 Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2013 No.1 Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2014 - English Class at 
 Pyongyang International Football School Photographed by Wang Guofeng
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!13
WANG YUXUAN
Passion… Photographed by Wang Guofeng
It is Neither the Past, Nor the Present, Nor the Future Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2015 - Restaurant Waitress No.3 Photographed by Wang Guofeng
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
North Korea 2015 - Photography Critic, Central Committee of Photographer Association of DPRK Photographed by Wang Guofeng
!14
WANG YUXUAN
North Korea 2015 - Staff No.5, Bureau of Telecommunications Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2015 - Government Car Driver Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2015 - Female Coach No.3 of Shooting Range Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2015 - Female Coach No.1 of Shooting Range Photographed by Wang Guofeng
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!15
WANG YUXUAN
North Korea 2015 - Teacher of Pyongyang University of Music Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2015 - Vegetable Picking Assistant of Vegetable Research Institute Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2015 - Female Athlete of Taekwondo No.1 Photographed by Wang Guofeng
North Korea 2015 - Writer and Poet Photographed by Wang Guofeng
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!16
WANG YUXUAN
The Game of Their Lives 2002 Film Produced by John Battsek and Nicholas Bonner
A State of Mind 2004 Film Produced by John Battsek and Nicholas Bonner
Comrade Kim Goes Flying 2012 Film Directed and Produced by Nicholas Bonner, Anja Daelemans, Gwang Hun Kim, and Ryom Mi-Hwa
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
Aim High in Creation 2013 Film Produced by Lizzette Atkins and Nicholas Bonner
!17
WANG YUXUAN
READING LIST / REFERENCES Bartlett, V P. (2008) Spectacle as Myth: Guanxi, the Relational and the Urban Quotidian in Contemporary Chinese Art 2005- 2008. PhD diss., University of Arts London. "Freedom in the World, 2006". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 14 July 2007. Retrieved 13 February 2007. “Citizens of North Korea cannot change their government democratically. North Korea is a totalitarian dictatorship and one of the most restrictive countries in the world.” Rossabi, Morris (1983-05-20). China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th– 14th Centuries. University of California Press. p. 323. ISBN 9780520045620. Retrieved 8 November 2016. Yi, Ki-baek (1984). A New History of Korea. Harvard University Press. p. 103. ISBN 9780674615762. Retrieved 8 November 2016. Kim, Djun Kil (2005-01-30). The History of Korea. ABC-CLIO. p. 57. ISBN 9780313038532. Retrieved 8 November 2016. Seth, Michael J. (2010-10-16). A History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (published 2010). p. 306. ISBN 9780742567177. Archived from the original on 1 January 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2015. Lee, Sung-Yoon (26 August 2010). "The Pyongyang Playbook". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 4 September 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2010. Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Foreign Languages Publishing House. 2016 [Amended and supplemented on June 29, Juche 105 (2016), at the Fourth Session of the Thirtieth Supreme People's Assembly]. Chapter I, Articles 1–3. Retrieved 22 May 2018. "Human Rights in North Korea". hrw.org. Human Rights Watch. 17 February 2009. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 13 December 2010. John K. Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer & Albert M. Craig (1978). East Asia: Tradition & Transformation. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. ISBN 978-0-395-25812-5. Andrei Lankov (13 February 2011). "Socialist realism". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 26 July 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2014. "Benoit Symposium: From Pyongyang to Mars: Sci-fi, Genre, and Literary Value in North Korea". SinoNK. 25 September 2013. Archived from the original on 13 June 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2014. Crocker, L. (2014, December 22). North Korea's Secret Movie Bootleggers: How Western Films Make It Into the Hermit Kingdom. "Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Korea, 1–500 A.D." Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 4 January 2013. Moon, So-young. "Exhibition defies conventions of Korean painting". Korea JoongAng Daily. JoongAng Ilbo. Retrieved 5 April 2018. PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!18
WANG YUXUAN
"'Artist of the Year 2009' - Seo Young-Sun". National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2011. Tertitskiy, Fyodor (6 June 2016). "The good things in North Korea". NK News. Retrieved 20 July 2016. "Mansudae Art Studio - North Korean Art, Korean art, North Korea, Pyongyang, Mansudae, DPRK, woodcut, socialist realism, propaganda art, embroidery, Korean exhibition, Kim Jong Il, jewel painting, Kim Il Sung". www.mansudaeartstudio.com. Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-12-07. "North Korea's Arts Scene Is Just As Mysterious As The Nation Itself". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-12-07. "Mansudae Art Studio, North Korea's Colossal Monument Factory". BloombergView. Retrieved 2015-12-08. "The Controversial Senegalese Monument Built by North Korean Propaganda Artists". Slate. 2014-08-04. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2015-12-08. "LONG LIVE MANSUDAE | 艺术界 LEAP". leapleapleap.com. Retrieved 2015-12-08. "Mansudae Grand Monument - Lonely Planet". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 2015-12-08. Bernard Suits (9 November 2005). The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia. "North Korea's happiness index rank: China top, US bottom (Photos)". https://www.ibtimes.com/ north-koreas-happiness-index-rank-china-top-us-bottom-photos-706828. Retrieved 2011-05-27. "This North Korean Art Is More Than Propaganda". https://news.nationalgeographic.com/ 2016/07/north-korea-propaganda-art-socialist-realism-display/. Retrieved 2016-07-20. "What art from North Korea looks like". https://life.spectator.co.uk/2017/02/art-north-korealooks-like/. Retrieved 2017-02-13. "Former propaganda artists for North Korea denounce Trump-Kim meeting". https:// www.theartnewspaper.com/news/former-propaganda-artists-for-north-korea-denouncetrump-kim-meeting. Retrieved 2018-06-12. Casey Lesser (17 August 2016). ”North Korea’s Artists Are Breaking Out of 70 Years of Isolation". https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-north-korea-s-artists-are-breaking-out-of-70years-of-isolation. Nicolas Bonner. (2017) Made in North Korea: Graphics From Everyday Life in The DPRK. Phaidon. "Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism". Public Broadcasting System. Retrieved December 15, 2011. Frederick Engels. "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (Chpt. 1)". Marxists.org. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!19
WANG YUXUAN
J. C. Davis (28 July 1983). Utopia and the Ideal Society: A Study of English Utopian Writing 1516-1700. Cambridge University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-521-27551-4. "Thomas More's Utopia". www.bl.uk. Retrieved 14 May 2017. "Utopian Socialism - The Utopian Socialism Movement". www.utopiaanddystopia.com. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
PROJECT PROPOSAL: EXHIBITION CURATION
!20