An art exhibition in Seoul depicts North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a smoking pistol in his hand, looking down at the dead body of US President Donald Trump, who is sprawled on a red carpet next to a metal briefcase overflowing with US dollar bills.
Behind Kim glows a neon title for the piece: The Show Must Go On.
The scene is part of a satirical exhibition of the diplomacy over the Korean Peninsula that has become “a big political show featuring two of the world’s biggest showmen.”
Photo: AFP
The piece by South Korean artist Lim Young-sun marks the end of a whirlwind year on the peninsula, during which Trump and Kim traded threats of war and personal attacks against each other before their first summit in Singapore. The colorful war of words between the leaders of the impoverished, but nuclear-armed North and the world’s top superpower — as well as their highly publicised summit in June — dominated global headlines this year.
“I just wanted to show our political reality we live in, in which citizens get nervous, anxious and happy watching their every single move as if they are watching a movie,” Lim, 59, told reprters.
The work portrays a film set, with Kim and Trump as friends, but arguing over money. Eventually Kim, angered by the high interest rates demanded by Trump, shoots him to death.
“Both leaders are masters of political shows and using the tension created by their hostile rhetoric for their own political gain at home ... but what they are lacking seems sincerity,” Lim said.
The week-long exhibition that ended on Wednesday drew thousands of visitors, some of who were left aghast at the depiction of the leader of the South’s top ally killed by the leader of its wayward northern neighbour.
“Some people angrily told me to my face: ‘Artists like you are jeopardizing our ties with the US and national security,’ while some others, apparently not Trump fans, said this piece gave them catharsis,” Lim said.
The installation is to be showcased elsewhere in South Korea and abroad next year, he said.
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