In the two-track video installation Two Oblique Representations of a Given Place (Pyongyang) (2001-04) Snyder explores one of the most beautiful places in the world, inaccessible to Western media or any other world network without censorship or clear instructions as to what may and what may not be shot. One video channel was edited from amateur video footage taken by an American engineer on a visit to the DPRK in 1995. The material was transferred from Hi-8 NTSC, to VHS NTSC, to Mini-DV PAL, and further digitized. The footage shows Pyongyang through the eyes of a tourist escorted by a guide. The camera zooms in on details, trying to capture as much as possible beyond that which is dictated by the guide. Observation of the materials reveals a discrepancy between the audible and the visible, often conflicting with the guide’s description, underscoring the distinction between what can and what cannot be filmed. The second channel was edited from the DPRK documentary film Pyongyang in Four Seasons produced in the mid-1990s for internal purposes. The images document the cityscape of Pyongyang as an idealized socialist urban landscape.

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 The CDA's archives are operating with the support of the Ostrovsky Family Fund and Artis
 

Two Oblique Representations of a Given Place (Pyongyang)

In the two-track video installation Two Oblique Representations of a Given Place (Pyongyang) (2001-04) Snyder explores one of the most beautiful places in the world, inaccessible to Western media or any other world network without censorship or clear instructions as to what may and what may not be shot. One video channel was edited from amateur video footage taken by an American engineer on a visit to the DPRK in 1995. The material was transferred from Hi-8 NTSC, to VHS NTSC, to Mini-DV PAL, and further digitized. The footage shows Pyongyang through the eyes of a tourist escorted by a guide. The camera zooms in on details, trying to capture as much as possible beyond that which is dictated by the guide. Observation of the materials reveals a discrepancy between the audible and the visible, often conflicting with the guide’s description, underscoring the distinction between what can and what cannot be filmed. The second channel was edited from the DPRK documentary film Pyongyang in Four Seasons produced in the mid-1990s for internal purposes. The images document the cityscape of Pyongyang as an idealized socialist urban landscape.

 The CDA's archives are operating with the support of the Ostrovsky Family Fund and Artis