Feast or Famine features 23 original posters from the Katharina Zellweger Collection. Zellweger collected over 100 posters during her tenure as the director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation program in Pyongyang from 2006 to 2011. This selection, rarely seen outside of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, centers around issues related to agriculture, animal husbandry, and food production. Created for a domestic audience and produced by government-run studios, the posters were designed to rally the population behind nationally promoted, food-related projects. The posters are original, hand-painted watercolors created to be copied and distributed in public campaigns.
Gallery Talk: Collecting Art in North Korea
by Katharina Zellweger
What do foreigners residing in Pyongyang do when they are not at work? During the five years Katharina Zellweger spent in North Korea (2006 - 2011), she was asked the question many times. For her, many Saturday afternoons were spent scouting for North Korean propaganda posters on a wide variety of topics, from agricultural to public health, politics or culture. In North Korea, these posters are commonly displayed on billboards and panels throughout the country similar to advertising in the industrialized world, or, depending on the message, distributed to schools, factories, cooperative farms, and offices.
Following the gallery opening, Zellweger will discuss her experiences collecting poster art in North Korea and talk about some of the projects and campaigns they represent.
