Abroad: Beijing and Pyongyang

This is the first part of an eight part post covering Brian's travels to Beijing, China and Pyongyang, North Korea. Brian was part of a six person group that accompanied Eungie Joo, New Museum's Head of Education and Public Programming, through Beijing to Pyongyang. The group spent five days in Pyongyang, one day in Kosong, and one day in Mount Paektu (the birth place of Kim Jong-Il) with Eungie and her mother, Dr. Pilju Kim Joo, founder and president of Agglobe Services International Inc. These experiences foster curiosity as well as criticism, not only of China and North Korea but also of America, all of which carry serious flaw and merits. Rather than being chronological, the posts documenting this trip will be focused on eight specific topics. Topics include: Dr. Joo's Farm, Food, Murals, Monuments, DPRK Architecture, and the Mass Games. For this first post we introduce the group:


From left to right: New Museum curator Eungie Joo, artist Byron Kim, Dr. Pilju Kim Joo, Hu Fang and Zhang Wei Wei of Vitamin Creative Space, sound artist Tarek Atoui, Brian Butler of 1301PE, & actress Kate Butler.

Eungie Joo

Eungie was appointed to be the next curator for the upcoming triennial ('The Generational') at the New Musuem in 2012. As noted, she is also the Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs at the New Museum where she spearheaded the Museum as Hub project which works with a multitude of organizations to stimulate conversations around art and other issues. Before working at the New Museum, Eungie was the director and curator at REDCAT in Los Angeles. She also co-founded Six Monthes in 2003, a temporary site in Crenshaw where conversations, exhibitions, and performances were held. This was an important venture that inspired many other temporary exhibitions in Los Angeles, including Musée Los Angeles by 1301PE's Mieke Marple.

At Dr. Pilju Kim Joo's farm.

Dr. Pilju Kim Joo was born in North Korea but fled before the Korean War to South Korea. She studied agriculture at Seoul National University at a time when few women attended university and went on to earn her PhD in seed science at Cornell University. Dr. Joo and her late husband, Young Don Joo, began charitable work to support long term agricultural development in North Korea in the early 1990s and travelled there together many times over the decade. After his death, she founded the Agglobe Services International in the early 2000s. Agglobe Services International is a humanitarian aid organization aimed at achieving global food security and sustainable agriculture.