Mass Games
Nation-building Spectacles
in Postcolonial Guyana
and North Korea
in Postcolonial Guyana
and North Korea
April 15 - June 24, 2016
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Mass Games: Nation-building Spectacles in Postcolonial Guyana and North Korea displays rare visual materials created by artists during a decade of transnational artistic and cultural exchange between North Korea, in East Asia, and Guyana, in the Caribbean, from 1980 to 1992. In collaboration with North Korean artists invited to Guyana, Guyanese artists and students created an annual national event by performing what are known as mass games—spectacular multimedia performances played out by three thousand students, visual artists, dancers, and musicians performing group choreography and a huge-scale card section play.
The exhibition features schematic drawings, photographs, photo albums, and choreography sketchbooks created in the 1980s by Guyanese artists and performers. The backdrops, displayed by means of card section play, portray the plants and animals of the Amazon, the multi-ethnic people and culture of Guyana, and messages of peace and self-sufficiency, subjects which became iconographic national images of Guyana. Artists such as George Simon and Philbert Gajadhar, who designed the backdrops, became celebrated artists in Guyana. The exhibition lets us glimpse an unknown history of the postcolonial global south, which attempted to create national identity and claim its position on the international political and ideological map by means of visual spectacle. Programmings
The exhibition will include a series of events
For the participants information, please check Exhibition Team and Participants. |
The archive preview |
Looking for former mass games performers! |
We are looking for people who have performed, designed, or watched mass games in their home countries, such as China, Guyana, Ethiopia, North Korea or South Korea. Mass games include card section plays and group choreography for school, corporate, and national anniversaries. All are welcome!
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