In Vienna, an exhibition of artists from North Korea

«Why? .." According to the director of the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, Peter Noever (Peter Noever), namely the question most frequently asked of them arranged by the exhibition of art of propaganda of North Korea. The exhibition, entitled "Flowers for Kim Il Sung. Art and architecture from North Korea, which opened in May - right in the midst of international conflict over the alleged destruction of the DPRK ship, owned by South Korea - angered many critics, who called venture at best questionable.

• Yung PG Start of the day. 1978
  Source: nytimes.com

most famous in the world as an art form of North Korea are familiar to television station broadcast dance and fitness parades, amazing in its scope (they may participate up to a hundred thousand children and adults!) and whimsical choreography. Vienna Exhibition opportunity to look at a short distance to the totalitarian aesthetics of the Looking-Glass, where the majority of the population lives on the brink of starvation, in constant fear of reprisals, including forced labor and torture.

the court at the museum visitors are more hundred paintings and watercolors from the collection of the main museum DPRK, the Korean Art Gallery in Pyongyang. This number works for the border of the Republic had never sent. Unnaturally cheerful paintings for the most part made in fun, bright colors, excellent craftsmanship, but the range of subjects is severely limited. Hardworking farmers and steel worker, seamstresses and janitors - all a really shone with joy, well-fed children are laughing, lit up the dazzling sunlight ... "We are the happiest children in the world" - says one surreal title. The work, created in 2000, just a few years after the peak of famine, which claimed three million Koreans, depicts a fat, Kim Jong Il, lifting the lid soaring boiler in the kitchen, where the tables are juicy chunks of meat and fruit. Nearby are two cooks in white caps and army officer. "Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il is very worried about how to eat soldiers »...

• RI TON GON early morning. 1998
  Source: nytimes.com

Most of the works were performed in the past 10 years. Idyllic landscapes, street scenes and images of Koreans at home on display is open, but the monumental portraits of Kim Jong Il and his father, "Great Leader" Kim Il Sung, are hanging in the corner, fenced off with ropes and detention, so that no one inadvertently came close. "We have here then, so no one hurt the picture" - said one guard.

addition to the protection of these works, which in Korea are considered national treasures, the museum is doing its utmost to comply with the maximum correct against North Korea. No show, no dvuhsotstranichny directory does not contain any hint of any criticism of stories and pictures of state policy. The museum is organizing a symposium, which will bring together experts on North Korean art and politics, but this event will be held just before the close of the show (September 5).

«Many wanted us to put these works context, but it is clear that in this case, we simply could not hold the exhibition ", - said Peter Noever in an interview. Catalogue quoted Minister of Culture, North Korea, which hoped that the exhibition will deepen the mutual understanding "between the two countries and will contribute to further cultural exchanges between them, but the authors of paintings, according to a museum in Austria was not allowed.

" Can I call ethical demonstration of propaganda dictatorship? "- asked the curator of the exhibition of Bettina M. Busse (BettinaM. Busse) correspondent of the Czech Republic. Under light cameras (it was during the press preview of the exhibition, 18 May) Busse said: "I think the theme of the exhibition did not understand. We are talking only about the culture. " The German newspaper DieWelt disagreed, calling the exhibition "shameless". According to the critic, as we know, the art of "regime of terror" is beyond any acceptable standards.

• RI CRS YOU blue sky. 2005
  Source: nytimes.com

themselves the North Koreans at first could not understand what their art is so appealing to residents of Austria. "It has long been a mystery to them, - said Noever. - I am very interested in artists who are far away [from the art world], and culture, about which we know almost nothing about which we have little information." Organization of the exhibition was to cost him four visits to Pyongyang (the first of which took place as much in 2003) and long negotiations. By the way, North Korea lent works for free.

three days before the opening of the exhibition to come Noever North Korean ambassador to Austria. He again asked why the museum organizes the event. "The Koreans were worried - says the director. - They were afraid that the show is directed against their country».

In Austria, the same Noever accused of trying to "humanise" the regime in Pyongyang. Ministry of Finance, which usually insures borrowed from the state museums of foreign assembly, refused to support its activities. "The exhibition demonstrates the latent sympathy for the [North Korea] - Ministry spokesman Daniel Kapp (Daniel Kapp), - and the Minister of Finance decided that we will not participate in this».

Furor also provoked published in the catalog essay Noever, in which he laments that "we see the world through the prism of Western ideology that obscures, if not completely distorts our perception of other cultures, and encourages visitors' good bye to Eurocentrism and cultural imperialism" . The exhibition, in his opinion, argues that "cultural differences can be overcome through mutual respect».

Noever, who served as director of the museum for 24 years, a fan of non-standard projects. Prior to his joining the Museum of Applied Arts, founded in the days of the empire in 1864, was a dusty warehouse; Noever revived an exhibit showing the neighborhood of furniture in the Biedermeier style and Mamluk carpets works by Donald Judd (Donald Judd) and Jenny Holzer (Jenny Holzer). He exhibited works of Soviet artists and opened the center in Los Angeles, in addition, it plans to equip one of the Viennese anti-aircraft towers era of the Third Reich space for showing contemporary art. "Noever no fool, - says the Vienna daily Die Presse, - probably the greatest in the Austrian representative of leftist" radical chic "».

Exhibition Noever unlikely to help the DPRK to gain new supporters abroad, but many experts koreisty argue that it can facilitate dialogue between the countries, although at much hope here is not worth it. "It is very important to develop cultural projects with different countries, even if we do not like their regime - said Jane Portal (Jane Portal), the head of the Asian department of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and author of books about the North Korean art. - Such cooperation is better than a complete rejection from communication ».

Despite the fact that Austria supports the sanctions against Pyongyang imposed in response to its nuclear tests, it has special relations with the DPRK. A long while it was the main supplier of luxury goods to North Korea's elite. This is stated in the memoirs of a Colonel from the DPRK, have come out in March this year. The officer was responsible for these purchases until fled to Austria. Last year, Italian police arrested one of the Austrian broker, who wanted to buy two yachts for Kim Jong Il. However, North Koreans are attracted to Vienna, not only shopping. Over the past decade North Korea has sent 17 students to learn the ropes conducting skill in the famous University of Music and Performing Arts.

Wien Museum "thanked" the North Koreans for this attachment, allowing the "evil in the name of" Flowers for Kim Il Sung. In 1965, President Sukarno of Indonesia showed "Great Leader" orchid hybrid, which it was decided to christen "kimirseniey. In 1988, was launched a new type of begonias, which gave the name "kimcheniriya. It is also called "the immortal flower." North Korea regularly hosts festivals dedicated to these colors, made of silk "kimchenirii" and "kimirsenii" adorn the entrance to the exhibition.

«The North Koreans do not understand that [name of event] laid irony - says Jane Portal. - While many visitors consider it a joke. You can find this funny or strange, but we saw it all in the communist and totalitarian societies: remember the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, China ... [North Korea] - the latest example of this system, the last bastion, which is sure to fall. It is therefore important to show [the certificate of it], to store them for future generations.

Material prepared Yulia Maksimova, AI

Sources: nytimes.com , artinvestment.ru