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Teun Voeten |
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PYONGYANG DESIGN |
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January 25 - March 12, 2005 |
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PYONGYANG DESIGN The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), also known as North Korea, remains a black hole to the West. Only a few hundred foreign tourists a year are allowed to visit the country, and they are closely monitored by government agents around the clock. Freedom of movement is non-existent. The "guides" inevitably bring tourists - or journalists posing as tourists - to the monuments, memorials and museums that celebrate the glorious history of North Korea and the wise leadership of the Kim dynasty. The dark side of the DPRK - the concentration camps, the starvation and poverty, the executions, the medical experiments on prisoners - are only known through the tales of survivors who managed to escape. As of today, no photos or video of these abuses do exist. The hidden North Korea remains invisible.
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When photographer Teun Voeten entered the country last year, he decided to focus on the visible. Voeten was struck by the megalomanic architecture, the hideous monuments, the tacky hotel bars, the desolate cityscapes. North Korea is an open air museum of obsolete Communist design and centrally planned overstatements. In sober yet striking color photographs, Voeten has managed to capture the spooky and the surreal in the last country on earth that still dares to call itself "Democratic".
This exhibition was made possible with the generous support of the Consulate General of the Netherlands, NY. |
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Artist Bio Teun Voeten is an award winning photojournalist and
author who has been covering the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda,
Sudan, Angola, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Colombia, Gaza, Liberia and Iraq.
His work has been published in Vanity Fair, Newsweek, The New Yorker,
National Geographic among others. Voeten is also a contributing photographer
for organizations such as the International Red Cross, Doctors without
Borders, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations. In 2004 he published his
book How de Body. Hope and Horror in Sierra Leone. Voeten was awarded by the
European Commission, Brussels with the Natali award (Human Rights and
Journalism) and by John Hopkins University, Washington DC with the
Sais-Novartis Award for his work in Sierra Leone. This year American
Photography selected him for their yearbook with the Liberia images he took
for Vanity Fair. In the Netherlands, he just won the so-called Silver Camera
Award in the category "Art and Architecture" with his North Korea images.
Voeten lives alternately in Brussels and New York.
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The photography series is curated by James Price and Anna Van Lenten |
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Previous exhibitions at The Half King
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