FOTO EXHIBITION 'NORTH KOREA' BY OLIVER WAINWRIGHT

A selection of pictures of interiors in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, “probably the only city in the world where the political ideology that produced the original urban plan is still intact”, according to the photographer and architectural critic for The Guardian, Oliver Wainwright. They were taken during an architectural field trip to North Korea in 2015 in which Wainwright set out to document the result of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il’s obsession with architecture as a means to create the image of a perfect society. The combination of massive monumental ornamentation and pastel colours, creates an urban decor that is both childlike and terrifying, equally saccharine and macabre. North Korea’s founder and his son are said to have found their inspiration in the colour schemes of Saint Petersburg and Copenhagen. (On show from October 2018 - February 2019)