Ravi Belle’s GGi Up-Date Course (11) – Yongin Paik Nam June Art Center
(Published January 18, 2011)

By any chance, do you remember Paik Nam June? Globally renowned Korean artist Paik Nam June, who passed away in the United States in January 2006, has been selected as one of the 100 artists of 20^th century. He was a master of contemporary art who raised the level of Korean art, which had previously lagged far behind in the field of contemporary art. Have you ever heard of this great artist?

I have a few memories of Paik Nam June’s art. I remember watching a television program (as a child back in 1984) on Good Morning, Mr. Orwell, which is considered one of Paik’s most revolutionary experimental works. Although I was too young to know what kind of artistic value it had or who ‘Mr. Orwell’ was, I still remember the amazing and mysterious shapes emanating from the monitor. I also clearly remember gazing at Paik Nam June’s The More, the Better, which was installed high up in the central hall of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, when I visited there during my high school days.

From these memories, I had the opportunity to clearly remember Paik Nam June as a great ‘leader of video art.’ I’m sure many people remember his work as well. I had the opportunity to explore the artistic world of Paik Nam June in college through liberal arts classes, but I still couldn’t easily understand ‘video art’ or ‘avant garde’ works. His artwork may still lack popular appeal even today despite having been created decades ago.

The Paik Nam June Art Center (NJP Art Center) was opened in October 2008. I have had the opportunity to visit this place a few times since then. I’m neither an artist nor a connoisseur of contemporary art. But while I was looking around the NJP Art Center, I was able to partially understand the world of art he dreamed of and pursued. We now take experimental art, artistic technologies, and video technologies for granted. But these might not exist today if it wasn’t for the work of Paik Nam June and his peers decades ago.

Although Paik Nam June was a global master, he wasn’t overly welcome in Korea due to many environmental and birth-related factors around him. Even when he passed away in the US, Korea’s press response didn’t match his fame. Anyway, he left a part of his body in the land of Korea. And his commemorative art gallery was established in Yongin, the region he preferred as the main stage for his artistic activities.

The NJP Art Center not only exhibits the works of Paik Nam June but also those of his artistic peers. The center also features records of his activities in Germany and the US, and provides explanations of the background to his artworks. Visitors can also see the works of Korean and foreign artists who have been influenced by Paik’s art in the form of projects. Many foreign artists were inspired by his art work and create their works here.

The NJP Art Center Library was built to enable visitors to experience an amazing library with a unique structure and space. Why not revisit the life and works of Paik this winter at the NJP Art Center? I thoroughly recommend this warm and cozy indoor art center as an ideal destination for loving families and couples.

Artistic world and life of Paik Nam June (Source: Wikipedia)

He is considered as one of the most experimental artists of the last century, primarily for his video artworks, and has been referred to as a sculptor, performance artist, and creator of video art by critics. There are even those who call him a ‘traveler in a fantasy world.’ Nevertheless, not all critics agree that Paik Nam June is the most provocative and innovative of post-modernism artist since the early 1960s.

He went to Japan early in his life and studied art history and music history at the University of Tokyo. Afterwards, he moved to West Germany (now the Federal Republic of Germany) and continued studying music history at Munich University in 1956~58. While working at the Studio fur elektronische Musikin Cologne during the late 1950s, Paik Nam June met American avant-garde composer John Cage, whose creative compositions and unconventional ways of thinking significantly influenced Paik Nam June.

When debuting as an artist, Paik utilized his major and mainly conducted Neodadaismic movements including songwriting and performance. Along with Joseph Beuys, he was an active member of the avant-garde group known as Fluxus. According to Paik, “Just as the collage replaced oil painting, so the brown screen will replace the canvas.” He discovered a wide range of expression in video and converted from the composition of electronic music to visual art.

In 1965, Paik presented a videotape installation work in which he erased a video tape of the Johnny Carson Show with electric wire. His interest in installation deconstructed and reestablished a technology, i.e., TV, which had degraded innumerable viewers into passive consumers, while exploring a new method of influencing the cultural environment with his artistic imagination and resolution. In particular a number of video performances produced for Charlotte Moorman, a classic cello performer, caused controversy due to their provocative nature.

While performing Opera Sextronique in New York in 1967, the cellist performed with her top half completely nude. Paik Nam June was immediately arrested on a charge of ‘creating art that publicly insults public class.’ But this incident actually tested the limit of artistic censorship and ultimately led to a change in the related legal clause. This artwork left a photo of the performance, a photo of the arrest, and the judge’s 10,000-word sentencing document.

Paik worked as a guest artist of the State University of New York in 1967 at the invitation of the then “happening” artist Allen Kapraw, published The Moon is the Oldestunder the supervision of the Berlin Art Center in 1976, and presented the first satellite broadcasting program Documenta 6 in 1977. This simultaneous space broadcasting show using satellite television was followed by Good Morning, Mr. Orwell in 1984 and Bye Bye Kipling in 1986, works that theatrically showed the possibility of a simultaneous experience beyond space and time using the most advanced scientific technology.

These early extensively experimental artworks became widely known to the public in the 1980s, when a hugely successful retrospective exhibition of Paik Nam June’s work was held at the New York Whitney Art Museum in 1982. In 1988, he produced a large-scale video installation work, The More, the Better, to commemorate the Seoul Olympic Games. In 1992, he held the Video Ttae Video Ttang exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, and continued his active engagement with artistic activities in the satellite project field, including the creation of the performance robot K-5, in 1995.

In 1996, a stroke paralyzed the left-hand side of Paik’s body. However, his zeal for art continued with the 1997 Germany Video Sculpture Exhibition and the Basel Art Fair, the 1998 Seoul Printing Art Festival, and the 2000 Guggenheim retrospective exhibition. The inclusion of three of his works from the 1960s and 70s in the Moving Time Exhibition held in January 2006 at the USA Manhattan Gallery Korea was the last time that any of his works were publically displayed.

Paik received innumerable awards. In 1993, he received the Golden Lion Prize in the Venice Biennale, the Fukuoka Asia Culture Award in 1995, and the Hoam Award in 1996. In 1997, he received the Goethe Medal, which is awarded to non-German artists who accomplish clear creative achievements. In 1998, he received the Kyoto Award for combining contemporary art with video. He received America’s Miami Artist Award in 1999, and received the Geum-Gwan Order of Cultural Merit in 2000 for his contributions to the development of art in Korea. In addition, the German magazine Focus selected Paik as one of the 100 artists of the year in 1996, while the German Capital magazine chose him as one of the 100 artists of the world in 1997.

How to get to the Paik Nam June Art Center

10-minute walk towards the Korea Folk Village from Singal 5(o)-geori Junction next to Suwon IC
Located next to the Gyeonggi Provincial Museum, opposite the front gate of Singal High School

Address: 10 Baeknamjun-ro, Giheung-gu, Yongin City, Gyeonggi Province
Contact: +82-31-201-8500
Homepage: http://www.njpartcenter.kr/kr/

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