Pablo Picasso's North Korea

In the United States of America, everyone has freedom of speech. In other countries, the people aren 't allow to speak about their beliefs. They may face punishments or death. Artist and writers are finding new ways to speak out against totalitarianism and dictatorial governments. They 're challenging the government using art. People have different perspectives on art. Some artists see their work all about social change. For others art is just a way to express themselves and doesn 't need a social or political drive. Should foundations fund artists to create the art they want to make because artists are valuable to society or should they fund only work that promotes social change? Protest art on the streets may be as powerful as Pablo

North Korea is famously known as a communist country.Propaganda is everywhere. Murals romanticizing the Korean leaders can be found literally everywhere. Propaganda vans drive around the towns and loudspeakers blare from 5am to 11pm. Sun Mu trained as an artist in North Korea. His job was to paint propaganda posters that glorified the country 's ruling dynasty. He then had a change of heart and became a North Korean defector artist, turning on the same people who taught him how to create propaganda. Since then he 's used the same artistic style he learned in his homeland to criticize those same leaders. He fled in 1998 to South Korea leaving some family behind. He left to escape food shortage. Since he left family behind in South Korea he does not show his face. Sun Mu is his alias. One of Sun Mu most controversial piece is on the floor of a art gallery. There spread is a paper painted with the names Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il over the concrete floor of the art gallery. The sheets are at the gallery 's entrance so that in order to view his work visitors must step on the names of North Korea 's late leaders. Stepping on the names of the leaders he spent much of his life looking up to. In I Am Sun Mu, a documentary about him, Sun Mu says he isn 't scared. But he says he still has mixed feelings about degrading the leaders, he was raised to look up to. "Every time I step on those names, I feel like I shouldn 't. I was taught not to disrespect them, and that 's still

In China, young people who are unhappy with Hong Kong’s government are protesting using their art. Hong Kong’s street artists have expressed their political views with posters, stickers and stencil graffiti. The art is meant to attack some of the city’s most important politicians and business leaders. Henry Tang Ying-yen, Hong Kong’s government chief secretary can be seen on Barack Obama’s “Hope” campaign poster. It shows the government’s chief secretary laughing, with horns on his head and the Chinese characters for “kill” printed on his forehead. “Devil” is written at the bottom, in English. Alongside is the chinese short phrase “Political reform killer”. The art was influenced by the chief secretary’s mockery when asked about China’s wealth gap. “We want to have more of a message, to say something about society and the Hong Kong people, I think it’s good that nowadays young people are quite concerned about their city, and they’re trying to protest in a more creative way, with posters and art, not just marching in the street. Street art is a way to get the message out” said Vi, one of the artist responsible for the the poster. Vi is part of the local street art crew Start from Zero. They’re were mostly known for black-and-white stencil art