Saitama University

Seminar in Visual Communication Design and Media Art

Fall 2018
Instructor: Zara-Papp Zilia
Fernando Isaac Salgado Sánchez
The art of Sun Mu

Dear "Great Leader"

I believed in you
Just in you.
You were all my life.
My heart was beating just for you.
Now
I also have
To the heart beating just for me.

I am Sun Mu.
Feb 11, 2017

Art is a way of expressing the soul, art has various shapes and colors, and through them we
can show our feelings, happiness, anger, sadness, anger, loneliness, emotion; art helps us to
understand human beings and know where our life has led us, at the same time through art
we can realize realities, not only of ours but of people who live on the other side of the
world, and make us reflect on what we are doing with our existence.

One of these realities is that of people who have been oppressed by governments, that their
only way out is to express their feelings and their ideas through painting, since they can not
do it any other way, I'm talking about SunMu, a unique artist, that with his art makes us
reflect on our social reality.

Talking about SunMu is talking about an artist of social criticism, harsh, satirical and
extravagant but to understand it you have to explain its context. We must start by his name,
SunMu, translated from Korean into English, as “Absence of borders “or” Without borders
of course is a pseudonym, his name encompasses all his spirit and his motive for painting.

SunMu was born in 1972 in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or better known as
North Korea, during the Kim Il Sung dictatorship, he grew up watching the atrocities of his
leader, lived the famine, and the oppression of a totalitarian government, in addition to
experiencing the suffering of families separated by the parallel 38, result of the Korean War
derived from communist ideas on the part of North Korea which were supported by Russia
and capitalist ideas on the part of South Korea supported by the United States, With this
context he started to paint since he was 9 years old, all of his painting were for the regime,
especially private works for leaders, when he grew up in he joined the North Korean army,
he still painted propaganda for the regime with phrases such as : Great Comrades Kim Il
Sung and Kim Jong Il Will Always Be With Us! and Let's destroy Capitalism !, this phrases
started to make him feel uncomfortable about the situation, and when an artist thinks, a new
world to him is opened into his head. That makes him realized about the reality of his
country and the oppression of their life.

He escaped from North Korea in 1998 at age 26, headed to China where he lived for several
years working in different trades, then moved to South Korea where he studied at the Fine
Arts Faculty of Hongik University, here he began to develop as SunMu and expressed his
ideal of a united Korea which is a constant theme in his art.

The art of SunMu is important, because what he produces is not only an expression of art
but and expression of disapproval of North Korean regimen in another words is
propaganda, he criticizes the leader Kim Jong Un and the socialist system that they have
implemented which aims to be an innovative and joyful system, which today for today it
has never been able to reach that end.

His art, a combination of pop art and social realism, with saturated colors and famous
media characters, portrays the marked differences of the two ideologies; Paintings
installations are part of his work. It is his art we can see that he uses oil and watercolor to
paint, he uses primary colors, besides the constant use of blue, red and white (colors of the
South and North Korean flags), besides in his installations we can see the use of fabrics,
metals and plants materials making a contrast between the nature of human being and the
ideas of the human being.

A good example of this is with his painting entitled "Take off and play" where we see the
current leader Kim Jong Un, surrounded by Disney characters like Mickey Mouse,
Tinkerbell, Cinderella or Snow White, while you see him laughing and enjoying his
company and with his hands covering his body with a coat. This work is accompanied by a
phrase that gives more meaning to the painting, the phrase says: "Take off the clothes of
ideology and play together."

Oil on canvas, 130x190cm, 2015

His artistic work has been exhibited in countries such as China, Korea and Germany;
always with that fear of being captured by the North Korean government and of reprisals
against his family, he has the following solo and group exhibitions:

Nice to meet you - December 20, 2018 - March 17, 2019 (Solo exhibition) Maehyangli
studio, Hwasung, Korea
-Two Hearts / Zwei Herzen - August 4-19, 2018 (Solo exhibition) PARKHAUS im

Malkastenpark, Düsseldorf, Germany

-If that were what happiness is - July 27 - August 28, 2016 (Solo exhibition) Alt space
Loop, Seoul, Korea
-NK PROJECT - July 21 - September 29, 2015 (Group exhibition) Seoul Museum of Art,
Seoul, Korea
-Verbotene Bilder / Banned Images - April 18-June 14, 2015 (Group exhibition) NGBK
Gallery, Berlin, Germany
-RED·WHITE·BLUE - October 30- November 25, 2014 (Solo exhibition) Trunk Gallery,
Seoul, Korea.
-RED·WHITE·BLUE - July 27-August 8, 2014 (Solo exhibition) Yuan art museum,
Beijing China.
-What are you doing - February 2-11, 2013 (Solo exhibition) Gallery Dam, Seoul Korea.
-Sea of peace - September25-November 25, 2012 (Group exhibition) Incheon Art Platform,
Incheon Korea.
-In my case - June 4-13, 2012 (Group exhibition) Art Base, Seoul, Korea.
-Crossing the line - September 29-October 30, 2011 (Solo exhibition) EUCCK Office,
Seoul. Korea.
-Bring, September 14 – 14, 2010 (Solo exhibition) Gallery Jung, Seoul, Korea.
-Korean Now, October 24 – December 9, 2009 (Solo exhibition) Gallery Sangsangmadang,
Seoul, Korea.
-Shared.Divided.United, October 10 - November 15, 2009 (Group exhibition), NGBK
Berlin, Germany
-Art in Busan 2009 : Inter-City, September 12-November 22, 2009 (Group exhibition),
Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea.
-The 9th International Conference on North Korea Human Rights & Refugees - March 20-
21, 2009 (Solo exhibition), Grand Hyatt Hotel, Melbourne, Australia.
-Nothing to be envious in the world – September 3-28, 2008 (Solo exhibition), Gallery
Ssamzie , Seoul, Korea.
Another outstanding painting that was exhibited in RED·WHITE·BLUE (his most
important exhibition) is entitled "Grandmother" which comes with a phrase that says "My
daughters say: Grandmother we want to meet you", this painting is one of the most personal
works for SunMu since it touches a sensitive memory in his life, here the portrait of his
daughters, wishing to know his grandmother who still lives in North Korea, at the same
time representing the reality of several families that suffer from these separations.

Oil on canvas, 60x72cm, 2013

Going back to his name "SunMu" which is a mask that covers his real name, his name
represents the consequences of his art, consequences like never showing his face, since he
has received retaliation every time he makes an exhibition, it does not matter if he and his
exhibitions are in China or in South Korea, he always receives threats of attacks or reprisals
against his families, the one that lives in North Korea and his other family his wife and
daughters that lives in South Korea.

His concern with his North Korean family is because of the "Three generations of
punishment" a law that a lows to punish all the members of a family for a crime of a
member of that family, this is the cost to be able to make known a reality that to the West
seems distant but that we should not ignore.
The art of SunMu is a challenging art, that opens our eyes at once, an art that invites us to
reflect on where we are taking the world, his art helps us to have a perspective of the
society, makes us see and feel through his eyes for what he and many more people have
suffered, in addition to their desires for the future.

SunMu has commented that he keeps the longing to one day exhibit his paintings in his
country, in a united Korea and then be able to demonstrate to the "Koreas" and to the world
that as he said "his art reminds us of the value and importance of freedom".
 Sources:

-ADAM SJOBERG(dir.), I am Sun Mu (Documentary), China, South Korea, EUA,

Required Readings, 2015
http://sunmuart.com
https://freemuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ATIBID_Article-Collection.pdf
https://freekorea.us/2015/07/31/the-rise-of-north-koreas-dissident-culture/
https://muep.mau.se/bitstream/handle/2043/16969/JonesP_DP14.pdf
http://freemuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Article01_SunMu.pdf
https://canadianart.ca/reviews/secret-life-north-korean-defector-artist/