The University of Hong Kong’s University Museum and Art Gallery is to hold an exhibition of North Korean propaganda posters from the 20th century.
Organised in collaboration with North Korea scholar and Stanford Fellow Katharina Zellweger, this will be the first display of such material in Hong Kong.
“Stylistically influenced by communist brutalist propaganda and ideologically informed by the core work on North Korean art—Kim Jong Il’s 1992 publication Treatise on Art (Misullon)—all of these state-commissioned posters promote ‘correct’ forms of socialist realism, thereby documenting the socio-political and economic policies communicated from the Leader to the North Korean people,” UMAG said.
“In so doing, daily activities are aligned with political beliefs; for example, the metaphorical configuration of rice farming with the cultivation of socialism.”
“Beyond their overtly ideological character, the posters confer messages related to practical agricultural, industrial and social developments, while portraying a distinctly human picture of the varied urban and rural communities.”
“Altogether, the imagery displayed offers insights into a country that few have visited and from which first-hand information remains sporadic and inconsistent at best.”
The exhibition will take place 9:30pm to 6pm Mondays to Saturdays and 1pm to 6pm on Sunday from November 29 to January 28, 2018 at 2/F Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam.
