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re:publica 17 - All Sessions Podcast
Is Freedom the most expensive word? A journey to North Korea (en)

Is Freedom the most expensive word? A journey to North Korea (en)

re:publica 17 - All Sessions vor 9 Jahren

Whereas contemporary states, societies and citizens are said to be interconnected and interdependent as never before in human history, North Korea appears as a sui generis void in international relations; a place beyond the realm of comprehension, being n

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Renata Avila, Maja Pelevic After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the
dissolution of socialist project and the breakup of Yugoslavia, the
only island still surviving in isolation, thus constantly arousing
interest and contempt in the West as the only remnant of the Cold
War, is North Korea. The image of North Korean people “suffering
under totalitarian oppression” is one of the most spectacular and
most fantastic ones. The image of North Korea which reaches the
West, the way its interiors, architecture, monuments, the
government, repression and mass events are represented, absolutely
equals the dystopias seen in Science Fiction movies, where all
freedom is abolished. North Korea functions, thus, as a kind of
unconscious western world, the dark spot on which all the gulags,
torture, state supervision over individuals, etc. are projected.
The projection of repression over the Other is ideal for masking
one’s own repressive, non-democratic practices, such as the
struggle against terrorism, the Greek crisis and the refugee
crisis. Therefore, by speaking of North Korea, we also speak of
America, of the EU, of Serbia. The interactive talk will discuss
contemporary problems using North Korea as frame and a highly
creative format, as the conversation will show pictures, videos and
vividly describe situations of a trip to Pyongyang, letting
the audience interact and share questions about it, from the
Internet and surveillance while you are visiting a dictatorship to
questions on our current degrees of freedom in the west.