Arirang Mass Games: card-section portrait of Kim Il Sung, Pyongyang (photographed 2007)
A photograph from the stands of an Arirang mass-games performance in 2007 shows a vast card-stunt backdrop, formed by a block of children holding coloured cards, picturing a portrait of Kim Il Sung. The tell is identity fusion: individual performers are dissolved into a single image of the founding leader, so participation itself becomes an act of devotion. Context: the event was a state-run spectacle in Pyongyang with a Korean-history narrative, staged in the Kim Jong Il period.
- Date
- May 5, 2007
- Period
- Contemporary
- Made by
- Arirang Mass Games organisers (DPRK state spectacle, Pyongyang)
- Region
- East Asia
- Country
- North Korea
- Medium
- Photograph
- Issuer type
- State
- Leader
- Kim Jong Il
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Commemorate
- Techniques
- Identity fusionGlittering generalities
- Leader
- Kim Jong Un
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Openly licensed (CC BY 2.0, per Wikimedia Commons)
Gilad Rom (Flickr), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
