Moscow Museum gives a glimpse inside North Korea

The exhibition of the Ultra Modern Art Museum (UMAM) "Made in North Korea" in Moscow, opens a window onto the everyday life of North Koreans with a collection of common objects, including propaganda posters, photographs, stamps and sweets.

North Korea, a state that has been ruled by the Kim dynasty since 1948, is a mystery for most of the outside world. "Our exhibition is not political, despite North Korea being a nuclear threat to the international community," Daria Dovbenko, one of the exhibition's two curators, told The Moscow Times. "The goal of the exhibition is to give a glimpse inside the world's most closed society, to give a fuller picture of how it really is, including facts about the human side of its people who are so often ignored by the West."

The organizers of the exhibition believe that most visitors will be surprised to learn about several subjects, like that of cannabis which is not prohibited by law in North Korea, and in fact, everyone is allowed to grow it in their garden or can buy it from others. "Hardly anyone knows that North Korea has its own rules of basketball. In fact, they changed the whole game. They have also banned jeans, which are considered a symbol of their main enemy - the U.S.," Dovbenko said.

Alexander Donskoi, one of the two curators and a former Russian politician, collected the exhibits from North Korea. He has been visiting North Korea for years where he is involved in various projects. This has given him a unique insight into a country which the majority of people know very little about. Dovbenko said that they were intrigued by the opportunity to explore first-hand the experiences of the guarded country at a time when tensions are high between North Korea and the West.

The exhibition runs from Jan. 20 until Feb. 1.

UMAN. 11 Nizhnyaya Syromyatnicheskaya Ulitsa, Bldg. 2 (Pluton Bldg. at Artplay). Metro Kurskaya. +7 (499) 653 4990. umammuseum.com

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