A Totalitarian Landscape

Images from "The Atlantic Cities" offer a glimpse into the architectural landscape of Kim Jong-Il's dictatorship in North Korea.

1 minute read

December 23, 2011, 7:00 AM PST

By Kayla Gordon


Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan of The Atlantic Cities writes:

"Our ideas about life inside the country are skewed by the images that leak slowly from within North Korea, either of mass celebrations, empty highways, or the perennially unfinished Ryugyong Hotel."

The images that have surfaced from North Korea, "depict desolate landscapes dotted with moments of architectural egotism." Idolatrous monuments and oversize propaganda seem prominent, as "the most fertile ground for megastructuralism is a totalitarian regime."

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 in The Atlantic Cities

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