Real, Symbolic, Imaginary

Exhibition

A curatorial project exploring North Korea as reality, projection, and imagination. Based on collected materials, it examines how images are constructed when access is limited.

Curatorial Approach

The project proposes collaborations between artists based in Korea and Berlin, engaging with the collected material.

Particular emphasis is placed on the intersection of different historical experiences: artists such as Zinu Kim, Jeewi Lee, and Ka Hee Jeong approach the subject from within a Korean cultural and geopolitical context, while Via Lewandowsky brings a perspective shaped by life in the former East Germany — a system marked by controlled information, ideological imaging, and restricted access.

Rather than collapsing these perspectives, the project creates a space in which they remain in tension. This difference — between proximity and distance, lived experience and projection — structures the curatorial field.

Context & Material

In November 2019, the curator undertook a research trip to North Korea.

The collected materials — art catalogues, books, comics, medical publications, films, and everyday objects — form the starting point of the project.

Rather than serving as documentation, these materials act as triggers for artistic translation. They carry traces of a system that both controls and stages itself, while opening surfaces for external projection.

Planned Formats

Exhibition

Lecture

Discussion

Participants

Zinu Kim, Jeewi Lee, Ka Hee Jeong, Lorina Speder, Via Lewandowsky, Li Zhenhua

Curator: Jung Me Chai

Context Questions

Reality without verification.

Between documentation and fiction.

Between access and projection.

Map Connections