Kathleen Bühler curator of the exhibition «Border Crossings – North and South Korean Art from the Sigg Collection», meets Koen De Ceuster, expert for North Korean art and (propaganda) culture as well as «field researcher» of the North Korean art scene.
About the exhibition:
The exhibition allows the public a close look at the Korean Peninsula, divided since 1953. A 250-kilometre border of barbed-wire fences and anti-tank barriers divides Korea into two states which could not be more different from one another. Equally divergent is the art produced simultaneously in the two countries.
The North fosters a socialist-realist tradition of painting, while in the South a vital contemporary art examines the irreconcilability of the two political systems and the lived reality of the population. In the exhibition, the contrasting world-views engage in a dialogue with one another and invite the public to approach Korea’s history as well as its present.
Selected works from the Sigg Collection form the starting-point of the exhibition and set visitors on a journey through Korean art from the 1970s until the 2010s. During his time as Swiss ambassador to China, Uli Sigg was also ambassador to North Korea (1995 – 1998). This gave him both a profound insight into North Korean reality and the unique opportunity to acquire works.
Curator: Kathleen Bühler / Curatorial assistance: Stefanie Marlene Wenger
More information: Kunstmuseum Bern
