Life Behind the Walls was conceived as an immersive spatial installation dedicated to North Korea, the mechanisms of totalitarian regimes, and the fragile boundary between image and reality. The project is rooted in the long-term work of Korean studies scholar and writer Nina Špitálníková, whose professional and literary practice has focused extensively on North Korea. She is the author of four books on the subject, as well as her latest children’s book Tota lítá, originally written for her son Malcolm, which explains the principles of totalitarianism through language accessible to children without diminishing the seriousness of the topic. Her direct experience of living in North Korea gives the project a rare proximity to a reality that remains largely inaccessible.

The exhibition was initially conceived as a short accompanying programme for the launch of Tota lítá and Testimonies from Life in the DPRK 2. However, after visiting the site, the potential of the space became clear, and together with Nina Špitálníková we expanded the project into a larger exhibition and educational environment.

The principles behind Tota lítá became one of the key curatorial foundations of the exhibition. Children are often given very little space within exhibition formats. This project consciously challenges that convention. It approaches children not as secondary visitors, but as equal participants and fully-fledged members of society who deserve the same attention as adults. The exhibition was therefore conceived with children at its centre: accessible, playful and imaginative, while still treating its subject with respect and depth.

In North Korea, nothing is quite as it appears. The country presents itself to the outside world through carefully staged images of wide boulevards, smiling families and disciplined everyday life. This photogenic and meticulously composed aesthetic suggests an ideally functioning state, while concealing the reality of daily life under a totalitarian regime.

Because direct evidence of the regime’s crimes is extremely scarce, personal testimonies play a crucial role. The exhibition is therefore based on the stories of defectors, on individual human experiences, and on Nina Špitálníková’s long-term engagement with the subject. Here, testimony becomes a way of entering a reality that official images are designed to hide.

The exhibition architecture translates this tension into a spatial narrative. Visitors move from light into darkness, from the visible image into a hidden reality. The exhibition is not conceived as a linear explanation, but as a gradual process of uncovering layers, in which movement, perception and choice become tools for understanding.

The first part of the exhibition takes the form of a maze, developed as part of the Behind the Walls festival. The maze symbolically and physically opens up hidden, inaccessible or overlooked layers of reality. It invites visitors — especially children — to discover, explore and gradually reveal what lies beyond the surface.

The space is built from a simple modular structure of timber beams and stretched textiles, forming light, semi-transparent walls. Children can perceive hints of what is happening “behind the wall”, but they navigate the installation primarily through their own movement and experience. The maze is not only a spatial game, but also an environment for sensory perception, curiosity and imagination.

Throughout the maze, interactive panels create moments of play, pause and reflection. The tasks, games and visual elements develop creativity, logic, cooperation and the ability to ask questions. Children are not guided along a single correct path; instead, they choose their own route and pace. The games and graphics build directly on the book Tota lítá, allowing the exhibition to extend the world of the book into space.

Integrated into this part of the exhibition are photographs by Michal Huniewicz, showing North Korea as it presents itself to the outside world. These images form the first layer of the exhibition: aesthetic, ordered and seemingly legible.

The transition into the second part is marked by a passage between two walls displaying photographs of the real border between North Korea and China by Tim Franco. At this moment, visitors literally enter “behind the wall”. The atmosphere changes. The space darkens, slows down and loses its playful character.

In the darker part of the exhibition, visitors are confronted with the reality behind the image. They encounter the stories of North Koreans who did not survive the regime, as well as those who managed to escape. The abstract idea of totalitarianism is transformed into concrete human destinies.

Life Behind the Walls uses exhibition architecture as a medium for emotional mediation. From an open, playful and semi-transparent environment, it leads visitors into silence, darkness and a direct encounter with harrowing testimonies. The project shows that architecture does not merely display content; it can create conditions for understanding — through movement, light, uncertainty, fear, empathy and the moment of decision.

Will you bow, or look away?

Studio: B² Architecture
Author: Barbara Bencová, curatorial concept & exhibition architecture

Co-author: Nina Špitálníková, based on her books
www.knihyparadox.cz/autori/nina-spitalnikova
www.instagram.com/zivotzazdmi

Photographer: Radek Šrettr Úlehla, www.radekulehla.com

Graphic design: Lenka Volková, www.lenkavolkova.cz, Sharp Objects [Richard Bakeš], www.sharpobjects.cz
Illustrations: Myokard [Dana Lédl], www.myokard.com
Photography: Michal Huniewicz, www.m1key.me, Tim Franco, www.timfranco.com
Exhibition panels and textiles: Seppe [Josef Studený], www.seppe.cz
Lights: Karel Vydra
Fabrics and floor coverage: Tuchler, www.tuchler.net
Carpenter: Jan Bašta