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0149 This is Me, This is My Country ×

On the occasion of Kim Il-Sung’s visit to Indonesia in 1965, the then Indonesian president Sukarno presented the state guest with an orchid. It was not just any orchid, but a specially hybridized variety, which he named after the North Korean president: Kimilsungia. The Kimilsungia is still a symbol for the power of the leader in today’s North Korea—images of the orchid can be found throughout Pyongyang, often accompanied by a red begonia, the Kimjongilia, named after Kim Il-Sung’s son. Today, the tradition of dedicating an orchid to heads of state and political dignitaries extends beyond North Korea. As part of the exhibition Between Walls and Windows. Architecture and Ideology at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Arno Brandlhuber created a “Garden of Ideologies” in the cleared entrance area, where visitors could admire a series of orchids bearing the names of famous politicians: the Kimilsungia, named in honor of the North Korean president Kim Il-Sung, was in the illustrious company of Dendrobium Angela Merkel, Maxillaria Gorbatschowii, and Brassolaeliocattleya Margaret Thatcher. Read more

The planters were installed directly next to the pathetic quotation by Benjamin Franklin, “God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country,” to which the title of the work alludes. This is Me, This is My Country was about the relationship between cultural production and ideology, which also formed the starting point for the initiative 0150 Initiative Weltkulturerbe Doppeltes Berlin. Read less

Category
Exhibition
Place
Berlin
Year
2012
Venue
Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
Title
Between Walls and Windows. Architektur und Ideologie
Collaboration
HKW with Arno Brandlhuber
Team
Tobias Hönig; Manuela Lomba, Valerie Smith, Pia Thilmann, Johanna Zinecker (HKW); Lutz Röllke (orchids); Georg Diez, Tobias Hönig, Roland Spohn (booklet)

© Alexander Koch

© Alexander Koch

© Alexander Koch

© Alexander Koch

© Brandlhuber+ Team

© Brandlhuber+ Team

© Brandlhuber+ Team

© Brandlhuber+ Team

© Brandlhuber+ Team

© Brandlhuber+ Team

© Brandlhuber+ Team