Postcards offer a taste of the foreign and exotic, giving the recipient a chance to share in the scenery experienced by the sender. Some of them, however, are about more than eye candy.

This is the case with Uri Tours’ upcoming art project, “Conversations with North Korea,” which will involve sending postcards from North Korea to people across the world.

Uri Tours is a U.S.-based North Korea tourism company. CEO Andrea Lee was inspired to host the project after witnessing tour participants’ reactions to the prospect of owning a simple tangible relic from their trip.

“I’ve done the trip to North Korea from Shanghai almost 100 times and every time I go, people are so excited to send themselves a postcard -– and that was just from themselves. I got to thinking, how can I use this great asset and do something bigger?”

The project is intended to start a dialogue between the people of the reclusive communist state and the rest of the world, and turn it into art. In exchange for pledging support for the project on crowdfunding website Kickstarter, participants are asked to submit a note sharing something about themselves or asking a simple question, which will be given to someone in North Korea.

Uri Tours will match up the submissions to citizens in North Korea, who will respond with a postcard postmarked from Pyongyang. In over 10 years of operations with the country, the agency has amassed a wide base of connections to call upon, Lee said.

“We have access to a number of individuals that we have met on our tours. They are from many walks of life and represent different professions and income,” she said. “We know that they may not represent the full spectrum of people living there, but it’s a good start.”

The interactions from both sides will be compiled and submitted to Art Prize, the world’s largest art competition, when submissions open for the 2016 show in April next year. The artwork will focus on themes of universality and the ability for people to connect on a personal level, political context aside.

“We want to show people that there is more to North Korea that what is seen on the news. We see very few images that are not political in nature and because I get the privilege of traveling there and seeing the people, I want to help more people see the other side that I see.”

As a Korean-American, Andrea Lee hopes to start conversations between North Korea and the U.S. in particular, with a goal of sending a postcard to each of the 50 U.S. states over the course of the campaign.

With Uri Tours working alongside designer Eliana Lee and design and technology entrepreneur John Dantzler-Wolfe, the artwork will also have a creative technological dimension.

Participants are invited to share their experiences in a collaborative online project, where they can upload their postcard and reflect upon it.

“We plan to work with a few artists, once we know how big this will be, to figure out the best way to tell our story. Right now, it is a blank canvas waiting for our backers to fill.”

The project quadrupled its crowdfunding goal in its first 12 days. The campaign will conclude on Aug. 27. To participate, visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/uritours/postcards-from-north-korea.

By Louisa Studman
Intern reporter
(louisastudman@heraldcorp.com)