Mansudae Master Class

2013 - Photography (Photography)

Che Onejoon


For the last few years, Che Onejoon has been focusing on the relationships between African countries and North Korea. He has attempted to interpret the ongoing Cold War in the Korean peninsula from a new geopolitical perspective. His resulting body of work focuses on the memorial monuments, statues and architectures that were built in 13 different African countries by North Korean government. Not often talked about, these “gifts” represent North Korea’s strategies using art as propaganda tool to gain support of African dictators in worldwide instances such as the United Nations. Though presumed to blend native African art, the monuments actually display more of North Korean socialist realism. The project is named after North Korea’s massive creative agency called Mansudae Art Studio established in 1959 by the order of Kim Il-sung to build monuments and statues for free, in Africa but not only. Che’s Mansudae Master Class project is a culminated study on cultural diplomacy, military alliance, translated forms of socialist realism, and images of utopia. Che’s photographs are frontal views of the monuments built by North Korea in the different African countries. Yet, the artist detaches the monuments from their original contexts so it becomes difficult to know where these architectures are located: in Senegal, in North Korea, or elsewhere. For example, t he African Renaissance Monument (2014) features the monument built in 2010 in Dakar, capital of the Senegal, a gigantic bronze statue to herald a new era of the continent.


Che Onejoon started working with photography in mandatory military service as an evidence photographer for the South Korean Combat Police recording different incidents for proof. Working with film, photographs, installations, and archives, Che’s research-based works deal with specific places of Korean society that connote the social and political changes that penetrate modern to contemporary history of the Korean peninsula. Studying the ruins of militarized modernity, Che presents the traces of erasures as sites of negation, disorder, and desertion.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

Sundown (Number Twenty)
© » KADIST

Xaviera Simmons

2019

Xaviera Simmons often employs her own body and collected materials in the service of her photographs and performances...

Daniel Clowes interviewed by Rene de Guzman
© » KADIST

Daniel Clowes is a graphic novelist, screenwriter, and Bay Area treasure...

Andy Meerow, medium cool
© » TWOCOATSOFPAINT

Andy Meerow, medium cool – Two Coats of Paint Andy Meerow, installation view of Slanted Andy” at Derosia Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / In Haskell Wexler’s iconic 1969 counterculture film Medium Cool , John Cassellis, a cold-eyed TV photojournalist played by the great Robert Forster, has internalized the notion of television as a “cool” medium in the McLuhan-esque sense of requiring viewers to search for context in order to understand what they are seeing...

The Sculpted Creatures of Masayoshi Hanawa
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Masayoshi Hanawa’s intricate ceramic and resin creatures are pulled from the artist’s internal mythology...

Octavia E. Butler Papers: mssOEB 1-9062 II (The L.A. Area)
© » KADIST

American Artist

2022

American Artist is engaged in a multiyear research project that traces and teases various interconnections between the life and work of science fiction author Octavia E...

Stirling Prize 2023 Liverpool + RIBA North
© » TATE EXHIBITIONS

Stirling Prize 2023 | Tate Liverpool + RIBA North Discover the Stirling Prize winner and the 2023 nominees Experience an overview of this year’s shortlist including the winning design, The John Morden Centre by Mæ...

Life
© » KADIST

Yu Honglei

2013

Yu Honglei’s video and mixed media works riff on familiar motifs from the Western art historical canon and reimagine them through a playful but subversive culture jamming of their original meaning...

Book List on Post-Colonial Theory from the C& Library
© » CONTEMPORARYAND

Book List on Post-Colonial Theory from the C& Library | Contemporary And search for something search C& AMÉRICA LATINA EN FR MEMBERSHIP EN FR Editorial All Editorial Features Installation Views Inside the Library Interviews News Opinions Events All Events Art Fairs Conferences Exhibitions Festivals Performances Screenings Talks / Workshops C& Projects C& Artists’ Editions C& Commissions C& Center of Unfinished Business Show me your shelves! C& Education Mentoring Program Critical Writing Workshops Lectures / Seminars Membership Opportunities Print C& Audio Archive On Tour Places Explore IN CONVERSATION INSTALLATION VIEW WE GOT ISSUES DETOX LABORATORY OF SOLIDARITY CONSCIOUS CODES CURRICULUM OF CONNECTIONS LOVE ACTUALLY OVER THE RADAR BLACK CULTURES MATTER INSIDE THE LIBRARY LOOKING BACK Follow About Contact Newsletter Advertise Imprint Data protection Membership Contemporary And (C&) is funded by: Editorial All Editorial Features Installation Views Inside the Library Interviews News Opinions Events All Events Art Fairs Conferences Exhibitions Festivals Performances Screenings Talks / Workshops C& Projects C& Artists’ Editions C& Commissions C& Center of Unfinished Business Show me your shelves! C& Education Mentoring Program Critical Writing Workshops Lectures / Seminars Membership Opportunities Print C& Audio Archive On Tour Places Explore IN CONVERSATION INSTALLATION VIEW WE GOT ISSUES DETOX LABORATORY OF SOLIDARITY CONSCIOUS CODES CURRICULUM OF CONNECTIONS LOVE ACTUALLY OVER THE RADAR BLACK CULTURES MATTER INSIDE THE LIBRARY LOOKING BACK GO TO C& AMÉRICA LATINA About Contact Newsletter Advertise Imprint Data protection Membership C& Center of Unfinished Business Book List on Post-Colonial Theory from the C& Library Our library offers a wide selection of books that are connected to the topic of (post-)colonialism in various ways and help us to understand the now...

Octavia E. Butler Papers: mssOEB 1-9062 II (Waylin Plantation)
© » KADIST

American Artist

2022

American Artist is engaged in a multiyear research project that traces and teases various interconnections between the life and work of science fiction author Octavia E...

Tapestry (Gewel)
© » KADIST

Helina Metaferia

2023

By Way of Revolution is a series that addresses the inherited histories of protest that inform contemporary social movements...

Press Release: Art21 to Release Two New Films in October: “Paul Pfeiffer: Interrupting the Broadcast” and “Wong Ping: The Freedom of Animation”
© » ART21

Press Release: Art21 to Release Two New Films in October: “Paul Pfeiffer: Interrupting the Broadcast” and “Wong Ping: The Freedom of Animation”...

Santídio Pereira — Un horizon végétal
© » SLASH PARIS

Santídio Pereira — Un horizon végétal — Galerie Xippas — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Santídio Pereira — Un horizon végétal — Galerie Xippas — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Santídio Pereira — Un horizon végétal Exposition Dessin, estampe, lithographie / gravure, peinture.....

Who Spends Millions on NFTs? Meet Beeple’s Crypto-Rich Early Collectors - via ARTnews
© » LARRY'S LIST

The recent booms in cryptocurrency prices have created a new generation of art collectors who are spending their money on NFTs, like Tim Kang....

5 Ways To Integrate Art Within Urban Infrastructure
© » ART CENTRON

5 Ways To Integrate Art Within Urban Infrastructure Home » 5 Ways To Integrate Art Within Urban Infrastructure ART & DESIGN Nov 29, 2023 Ξ Leave a comment 5 Ways To Integrate Art Within Urban Infrastructure posted by Kelly Schoessling This beautiful murals is one of the ways to integrate art within urban infrastructure...

Neglected middle class may be key to growing stagnant art market
© » THEARTNEWSPER

Neglected middle class may be key to growing stagnant art market Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Art market analysis Neglected middle class may be key to growing stagnant art market The spotlight tends to fall on big spenders, but what of “professional class” buyers, who often feel intimidated by the art world? Scott Reyburn 11 December 2023 Share Injecting new life: initiatives such as Avant Arte and Artist Support Pledge that attract less well-off collectors could revive a flat market Photo: splitov27 Art Basel and UBS recently issued their latest annual Survey of Global Collecting , which analyses the habits and attitudes of more than 2,800 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) across the world...

Pantone names its 2024 Color of the Year: Peach Fuzz.
© » ARTSY

Pantone names its 2024 Color of the Year: Peach Fuzz...

Mesopotamia Women’s Cooperative
© » KADIST

Asli Çavusoglu

2020

In the exhibition Pink as a Cabbage / Green as an Onion / Blue as an Orange , Asli Çavusoglu pursues her work on color to delve into an investigation into alternative agricultural systems and natural dyes made with fruits, vegetables, and plants cultivated by the farming initiatives she has been in touch with...

OPEN CALL: Performance Criticism Mentorship with Corrie Tan
© » ARTS EQUATOR

OPEN CALL: Performance Criticism Mentorship with Corrie Tan | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints July 25, 2018 Performance Criticism Mentorship by Corrie Tan, Resident Critic, ArtsEquator.com How does it work? You’ll attend six performances between September 2018 – March 2019 ...

Pantone Palette Proclamation: Peach Fuzz Takes the Lead for 2024
© » ARTLYST

In the kaleidoscope of hues that paint our world, Pantone, the ultimate authority on colour, has declared 2024 as the year of "Peach Fuzz." The post Pantone Palette Proclamation: Peach Fuzz Takes the Lead for 2024 appeared first on Artlyst ....

Manal AlDowayan to represent Saudia Arabia at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
© » ARTSY

Manal AlDowayan to represent Saudia Arabia at the 2024 Venice Biennale...