Morten Traavik, Always Prepared! DMZ Academy and Opposition through Collaboration

For Cosmoscow, Traavik comes directly from Pyongyang, and on September 9th – on North Korea’s Liberation Day – he will share his experiences from the first collaborative workshop/ residency where western artists cooperate with North Korean artists at the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) Academy that he has just launched. Morten Traavik (b. 1971) is a Norwegian director and artist working across a wide spectrum of artistic genres and international borders. Trained as theater director in Russia and Sweden, the notion of the world as a stage and identity as role play is never far away in his works, as well as a characteristically blurred distinction between art, activism and social issues. His beauty pageants for landmine survivors, Miss Landmine Angola (2008) and Miss Landmine Cambodia (2009) made headlines and fueled discussions across the world. In 2010, he was the first (and so far only) artist-in-residence with the Norwegian Armed Forces. He is also renowned for a series of controversial collaborations with North Korean artists and cultural authorities. He has persuaded North Korean accordion players to perform “Take on me” by A-ha. In August 2015 he again made world headlines by bringing alternative rock’n’roll to North Korea in the form of ex-Yugoslavian industrial band Laibach.