Reflections on a cold noodle soup
dinner performance
supported by Alserkal Arts Foundation
2017
The performance Reflections on a cold noodle soup is a dinner performance offering traditional north korean cold noodle soup to the audience whilst the artist leads a conversation centered around the relations between the United Arab Emirates and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Tables and chairs in the exhibition space look alike the interior of the North Korean restaurants Okryu Gwan in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The oil painting in the background, a commissioned work by a North Korean painter based in Dubai is depicting the Deira branch of the restaurant chain that openend in october 2007. During the evening the guests are served the traditional North Korean cold noodle soup, a take-away from Okryu Gwan restaurant when Franziska Pierwoss is addressing the culinary and cultural exports of North Korea at the tables using archival documents, restaurant menus and drawings. Unfolding a story of labor exchange with the German Democratic Republlic in the 50’s, giant public sculptures in Zimbabwe, North Korea’s active trade relations with the U.A.E. including arms and foreign currency earnings, as the evening proceeds.
Photography: Ali El Darsa, Musthafa Aboobacker