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Revolution from 360 Feet Below: Form and Ideology in the Pyongyang Metro

Revolution from 360 Feet Below: Form and Ideology in the Pyongyang Metro Among the deepest subway systems in the world, the Pyongyang Metro is marked by an ostensible disjunction with the space of the North Korean capital above it. Rather than referencing street names or landmarks above ground, each of the seventeen stations on the metro is named after and designed according to a revolutionary theme, ranging from “victory” to “reunification.” Furthermore, the metro stations contain no maps of Pyongyang, and city maps do not indicate the locations of the metro stations. This essay draws on visual evidence and North Korean textual sources in order to demonstrate that the apparent bifurcation of the metro and the city space stems from the North Korean state’s chuch’e ideology, which holds that ideas, rather than material conditions, determine reality. I demonstrate how the architectural design and mosaic murals of the metro stations evidence an attempt to cast the space of the metro as a realm of revolutionary thought detached from the material world above ground. Beyond merely reflecting the ideology of the state, however, the artistic forms comprising the metro also give rise to aesthetic effects that are irreducible to the narrative content signaled by the themes of the stations, thereby complicating understandings of how so-called totalitarian art operates in relation to the ideological context in which it is produced. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Korean Studies Duke University Press

Revolution from 360 Feet Below: Form and Ideology in the Pyongyang Metro

Gabriel, Douglas
Journal of Korean Studies , Volume 23 (1) – Mar 1, 2018
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23 pages

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Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
ISSN
0731-1613
eISSN
2158-1665
DOI
10.1215/21581665-4339080
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Among the deepest subway systems in the world, the Pyongyang Metro is marked by an ostensible disjunction with the space of the North Korean capital above it. Rather than referencing street names or landmarks above ground, each of the seventeen stations on the metro is named after and designed according to a revolutionary theme, ranging from “victory” to “reunification.” Furthermore, the metro stations contain no maps of Pyongyang, and city maps do not indicate the locations of the metro stations. This essay draws on visual evidence and North Korean textual sources in order to demonstrate that the apparent bifurcation of the metro and the city space stems from the North Korean state’s chuch’e ideology, which holds that ideas, rather than material conditions, determine reality. I demonstrate how the architectural design and mosaic murals of the metro stations evidence an attempt to cast the space of the metro as a realm of revolutionary thought detached from the material world above ground. Beyond merely reflecting the ideology of the state, however, the artistic forms comprising the metro also give rise to aesthetic effects that are irreducible to the narrative content signaled by the themes of the stations, thereby complicating understandings of how so-called totalitarian art operates in relation to the ideological context in which it is produced.

Journal

Journal of Korean Studies – Duke University Press

Published: Mar 1, 2018

References

  • ‘Fraternal Socialism’: The International Reconstruction of North Korea, 1953–62
    Armstrong, Charles
  • Ideological Introversion and Regime Survival: North Korea’s ‘Our-Style Socialism.’
    Armstrong, Charles Dimitrov, Martin K.
  • Semiotics and Art History
    Bal, Mieke Bryson, Norman
  • Beijing Underground
    Barmé, Geremie R. Sang, Ye
  • Stalinism and Tourism: A Study of Albania and North Korea
    Hall, Derek R.
  • Mosaic Murals of North Korea
    Haufler, Marsha Frank, Rüdiger
  • Political Revolution in a Cultural Continuum: Preliminary Observations on the North Korean “Juche” Ideology and Its Intrinsic Cult of Personality
    Helgesen, Geir
  • Party Lines
    Kee, Joan
  • Total, Thus Broken: Chuch’e Sasang and North Korea’s Terrain of Subjectivity
    Kim, Cheehyung
  • Pyongyang City Must Be an Example for the Whole Country in All Spheres of Politics, the Economy, and Culture
    Kim, Il Sung
  • On the Juche Idea
    Kim, Jong Il
  • The Marble Underground
    Lankov, Andrei
  • Chollima, the Thousand Li Flying Horse: Neo-traditionalism at Work in North Korea
    Moody, Peter Graham
  • North Korea
  • Archeological Fantasies: Constructing History on the Moscow Metro
    O’Mahony, Mike
  • P’ak’isŭt’an Inmindang taep’yodan i Inmin Kyŏngje Taehak kwa P’yŏngyang chiha ch’ŏlto rŭl ch’amgwan
  • ‘The Best in the World’: The Discourse of the Moscow Metro in the 1930s
    Ryklin, Mikhail Evans, Abigail Dobrenko, Evgeny Naiman, Eric
  • Uganda Konghwaguk chŏngbu taep’yodan ŭi ilbu sŏngwŏndŭl i Inmin Tae Haksŭptang kwa P’yŏngyang chiha ch’ŏlto rŭl ch’amgwan
  • Widaehan suryŏng Kim Ilsŏng tongji kkesŏ P’yŏngyang chiha ch’ŏlto rŭl tora posiyŏtta
  • T’ŭrauma (TRAUMA) e kach’in chiha kungjŏn ŭi yŏnggwang, p’yŏnyang chihach’ŏl
    Yi, Yunha
  • Murals in Metro
    Yun, Jong Su
  • ‘Fraternal Socialism’: The International Reconstruction of North Korea, 1953–62
    Armstrong, Charles
  • Ideological Introversion and Regime Survival: North Korea’s ‘Our-Style Socialism.’
    Armstrong, Charles Dimitrov, Martin K.
  • Semiotics and Art History
    Bal, Mieke Bryson, Norman
  • Beijing Underground
    Barmé, Geremie R. Sang, Ye
  • Stalinism and Tourism: A Study of Albania and North Korea
    Hall, Derek R.
  • Mosaic Murals of North Korea
    Haufler, Marsha Frank, Rüdiger
  • Political Revolution in a Cultural Continuum: Preliminary Observations on the North Korean “Juche” Ideology and Its Intrinsic Cult of Personality
    Helgesen, Geir
  • Party Lines
    Kee, Joan
  • Total, Thus Broken: Chuch’e Sasang and North Korea’s Terrain of Subjectivity
    Kim, Cheehyung
  • Pyongyang City Must Be an Example for the Whole Country in All Spheres of Politics, the Economy, and Culture
    Kim, Il Sung
  • On the Juche Idea
    Kim, Jong Il
  • The Marble Underground
    Lankov, Andrei
  • Chollima, the Thousand Li Flying Horse: Neo-traditionalism at Work in North Korea
    Moody, Peter Graham
  • North Korea
  • Archeological Fantasies: Constructing History on the Moscow Metro
    O’Mahony, Mike
  • P’ak’isŭt’an Inmindang taep’yodan i Inmin Kyŏngje Taehak kwa P’yŏngyang chiha ch’ŏlto rŭl ch’amgwan
  • ‘The Best in the World’: The Discourse of the Moscow Metro in the 1930s
    Ryklin, Mikhail Evans, Abigail Dobrenko, Evgeny Naiman, Eric
  • Uganda Konghwaguk chŏngbu taep’yodan ŭi ilbu sŏngwŏndŭl i Inmin Tae Haksŭptang kwa P’yŏngyang chiha ch’ŏlto rŭl ch’amgwan
  • Widaehan suryŏng Kim Ilsŏng tongji kkesŏ P’yŏngyang chiha ch’ŏlto rŭl tora posiyŏtta
  • T’ŭrauma (TRAUMA) e kach’in chiha kungjŏn ŭi yŏnggwang, p’yŏnyang chihach’ŏl
    Yi, Yunha
  • Murals in Metro
    Yun, Jong Su