What Does It Mean To Create Art in North Korea?
VIEW EVENT DETAILSA Conversation with Koen De Ceuster
Much like anything else in North Korea, art is not an end in itself. As part of the state infrastructure for agitation and mobilization it is fair to say that all North Korean art is propaganda art. And yet, even as propaganda art, there is much left to discover and decipher.
How do the artists themselves understand art and talk about their work? What role does art play in North Korean society? And why do North Korean artists so frequently depict Paektusan, North Korea's highest mountain?
Over the course of fifteen years, Koen De Ceuster has met and talked to numerous North Korean artists. In conversation with Kathleen Bühler, chief curator at Kunstmuseum Bern and curator of the exhibition Border Crossings. North and South Korean Art from the Sigg Collection, he will talk about his insights into North Korean art production and how this also sheds light on our own understanding of art.
This event is co-hosted with Alpine Museum Berne and Kunstmuseum Bern. Tickets can be bought via Kunstmuseum Bern.
Koen De Ceuster is a historian of modern Korea at Leiden University (the Netherlands). His research deals with the socio-cultural history of colonial Korea, the historiography of modern Korea, and more broadly the politics of memory. He is a recognized authority on North Korean art, reading North Korean art and art practices through the lens of North Korean art theory. He has (co-) curated several exhibitions of North Korean art, established an annotated digital database of North Korean posters (hosted by the Asian Library, Leiden University), and publishes on North Korean art theory and practice. Following ethnographic fieldwork among North Korean artists in 2018, he is currently working on a book project From the Painter’s Perspective: Explorations into North Korean Art. ]
Kathleen Bühler studied art history, film studies and philosophy and received her PhD from the University of Zurich on the experimental film work of Carolee Schneemann (Marburg 2009). 2021 she was nominated Chief Curator of Kunstmuseum Bern. Before that she has been curator and head of the Department of Contemporary Art since 2008. Solo Exhibitions with Tracey Emin (2009),Yves Netzhammer (2010), Berlinde De Bruyckere (2011), Zarina Bhimji (2012), Bill Viola (2014), Bethan Huws (2014), Silvia Gertsch/Xerxes Ach (2015/16), Miriam Cahn (2019),Thomas Hirschhorn ("Robert Walser-Sculpture" as part of the 13th Swiss sculpture exhibition Biel 2019) and El Anatsui (2020).
Event Details
Kunstmuseum Bern
Hodlerstrasse 8–12
3011 Bern
(MAP)