[백남준] 테이트모던 순회전: 'Stedelijk Museum'

[NAM JUNE PAIK] THE FUTURE IS NOW Exhibition 14 Mar until 23 Aug 2020

백남준 Stedelijk Museum에 TV-Buddha를 설치 사진 : 르네 블록 이 작품은 로댕의 일차적 조각인 '생각하는 사람'과는 차원이 다른 다차원 전자조각으로 만든 기념비적인 작품이다. 물론 백남준의 'TV 생각하는 사람'이라는 작품도 있다 1964년-1974년 백남준 뉴욕에 간지 10년만에 대성공한 작품이다. 뉴욕 미술계 지축을 흔들다. 10년간 절대빈곤 속에 빠진 백남준을 구해준 작품이기도 하다 이 작품은 인류의 난제를 풀어내는 대안을 제시한 작품이다. 즉 인류가 구원을 받으려면 동양의 사상과 서양의 기술을 융합하여 새로운 공존과 평화의 문화를 창조해야 한다는 메시지다 여기서 중요해지는 것이 바로 <소통과 참여>이다

19세기 인류구원: 착취-소외에서 해방-맑스 대안 사회혁명(폭력적 투쟁과 단결)
20세기 인류구원: 불통-단절에서 해방-백남준 대안 인터넷(비폭력적 소통과 참여)

Nam June Paik installing TV-Buddha in the Stedelijk Museum. Photo: Rene Block

우리 모두는 백남준의 '은하계(갤럭시)' 속에 살고 있다. 그가 인터넷 시대(electronic superhighway) 미디어아트가 새로운 길을 여는 세상을 예언하다 Largest survey of Nam June Paik, visionary artist and pioneer. He predicted the power of mass media to shape our lives and introduced the term ‘electronic superhighway’ to foretell the future of communication in an internet age. The exhibition The Future is Now tracks his artistic career over five decades, through large-scale installations, video sculptures, modified television sets, and his early musical scores and robots.

Nam June Paik, TV-Buddha, 1974. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Nam June Paik, TV Garden, 1974-1977 (2002). Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf © Estate of Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik (1932-2006) was born in Seoul, but lived and worked in Japan, Germany, and the United States. His travels led him to question national borders and cultural differences in an increasingly connected world. His art reflects this global connectedness and a fascination with the philosophies and traditions of both Eastern and Western cultures.

Always innovative, his work encompassed a variety of artistic genres, from sculpture and performance to music and live broadcasting. A frequent collaborator, he worked internationally with artists, performers, and specialists from different disciplines. The exhibition highlights his collaborations with other artists such as composer John Cage, choreographer Merce Cunningham, cellist Charlotte Moorman and artist Joseph Beuys.

Paik had a long relationship with the Stedelijk Museum: already in 1977 he had his first solo exhibition here. A year later his seminal work TV Buddha was acquired by the Stedelijk, which laid the first brick for the museum’s important time-based media collection. In 1984 he participated in The Luminous Image, a group exhibition with twenty-four international video artists. The Stedelijk not only championed the new discipline by giving it a platform, but also purchased video art, including that of Paik, for its collection-one of the first museums to do so.

[ICONIC ART WORKS] The exhibition brings together some of Paik's iconic works. An prominent installation from the Stedelijk collection is TV-Buddha (1974), in which an 18th-century wooden Buddha appears to ‘watch’ itself on a modern television, and typifies the influence of (Zen) Buddhist philosophies on Paik’s approach to art and technology. Also on view is TV garden (1974-77), an installation with TV sets alongside living plants. Paik imagined a futuristic landscape where technology is an integral part of the natural world.

Nam June Paik, ‘Magnet TV’, 1965, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Purchase, with funds from Dieter Rosenkranz, 86.60 a-b. © The Estate of Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik, ‘Uncle’, 1986, Private Collection. Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth. © The Estate of Nam June Paik

Sistine Chapel (1993) will be the iconic culmination of the exhibition in the IMC Hall of Honour, a mesmerising riot of images from dozens of projectors, for which Paik received the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1993. Sistine Chapel is an audio-visual collage of new footage and samples from Paik’s past videos, it featured many of the friends, collaborators, and public figures seen in this exhibition. It was Paik’s own way of summarizing his artistic career with video.

Paik wanted people to interact with art, which is why the exhibition also includes works in which visitors can participate by physically manipulating the artwork.

[The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog] The survey will tour to five international venues; Tate Modern, London, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and National Gallery Singapore.

The exhibition Nam June Paik: The Future is Now is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Korea Foundation. The exhibition is organized by Tate Modern, London and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Curated by Sook-Kyung Lee, Senior Research Curator, Tate and Rudolf Frieling, Curator of Media Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with Leontine Coelewij, Curator Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.