This documentary examines the diplomatic race between North and South Korea, particularly the former’s Juche Realism art movement, as seen in monuments and buildings constructed in Africa by the Mansudae Overseas Project. Overseen by Mansudae Art Studio, this initiative is largely responsible for the international proliferation of North Korean propaganda art since 1959. At present, some 18 African countries have erected statues, monuments, and buildings created by the Mansudae Overseas Project. Half of these were funded by former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung as part of his country’s diplomatic strategy in Africa, which was influenced by the diplomatic race between the two Koreas. As control of the Korean Peninsula became a geopolitical issue taken up by the United Nations following the 1953 armistice agreement of the Korean War, North Korea began to engage in diplomacy to win African support during the 1960s and pushed to join the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). In the 1980s, North Korea’s aid diplomacy to Africa led to the construction of numerous monuments and public buildings in Africa, perpetuating the ongoing division of the Korean Peninsula and including a Cold War effect. When North Korea’s economic situation worsened after the mid-1990s, the Mansudae Overseas Project dispatched artists and laborers to Africa in order to procure foreign currency through construction projects. Today, monumental statues and buildings in Namibia, Senegal, Botswana, and Congo serve as representative works of North Korean Juche Realism. North Korean made architecture and monuments are thus polemicized whenever social and political controversies arise, including issues related to African totalitarianism and North Korea’s alleged nuclear development. (Courtesy of the artist)
Mansudae Master Class, three channel video (color, b/w, sound). 40 min 51 sec. Courtesy of the artist. Colleciton of Seoul Museum of Art
The African Renaissance Monument, 2014. FRP (original design in North Korea, reproduced in South Korea). Courtesy of the artist
Statue of the Unknown Soldier in Hero’s Acre Windhoek, Namibia 2014, 2014. FRP (original design in North Korea, reproduced in South Korea). dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist
Monument de l’Indépendance Dakar, Sénégal 2013, 2013. Digital C-print. 86 × 60 cm. Comissioned by Musée du quai Branly, Paris. Courtesy of the artist
National Railways of Zimbabwe Headquaters (The Tallest Building in Bulawayo) Zimbabwe 2013, 2013. Digital C-print. 86 × 60 cm. Comissioned by Musée du quai Branly, Paris. Courtesy of the artist
Demolished Site of Statue of the Joshua Nkomo Bulawayo, Zimbabwe 2013, 2013. Digital C-print. 86 × 60 cm. Comissioned by Musée du quai Branly, Paris. Courtesy of the artist
The African Renaissance Monument, 2013. Digital C-print. 86 × 60 cm. Comissioned by Musée du quai Branly, Paris. Courtesy of the artist
Mansudae Master Class Archive, 2014. Mixed media (books, postcards, stamps, news articles from Rodong Sinmun, shelf and vitrine). dimensions variable. Furniture design: kit-toast. Commissioned by SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul 2014. Courtesy of the artist
