Mansudae Art Studio, Pyongyang, North Korea (2014) @ Art Basel HK 2019

Founded in 1959, Mansudae Art Studio, Pyongyang, is one of the largest ‘factories’ in art production in the world that is owned by state, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Artworks produced by Mansudae Art Studio, like paintings of realistic depiction or propagandist persuasion of lives and ideology in North Korea, are manufactured, displayed and sold at the gallery attached to the Studio. An art market of its own – operation, economy, worldview, and dream. A photograph of Mansudae Art Studio is now situated at Art Basel Hong Kong 2019, one of the largest art markets in the world.

The work is comprised of two parts: a glossy digital inkjet print displayed at Art Basel Hong Kong 2019, and an animated gif of images of Art Basel Hong Kong 2018 (images gathered by data mining) stored in a camouflaged flash drive awaited to be trafficked to North Korea.