[백남준] '전지구, '평화'연결자(Peace Maker)'

<평화주의자(Peace Maker Around the world) 백남준: David Bowie, Sakamoto Ryuichi와 Merce Cunningham 등 우정 출현> "세계가 파괴를 향하고 있는 현재 스타워즈(Star Wars)가 아닌 스타피스(Star Peace)를 만들어보고 싶다. 서울을 비롯해 미주, 유럽, 아시아 등 세계 각지를 동시 중계로 연결하겠다. 테크놀로지는 지금까지 옛 문화를 파손시켜 왔으나,최근 테크놀로지인 영상통신 기술은 각지의 고유문화를 교류시켜 대립과 갈등이 계속되는 지구를 둘러싸서 하나로 모을 수가 있다" -백남준 이것이 바로 1988년에 발표한 '지구를 온몸으로 감싸안다(Wrap Around the World)'라는 작품. 서울, 동경, 베이징, 독일 본, 런던 등 연결하다.

타고르는 일찍이 "코리아가 동방의 빛이 될 것이다"라고 예언했다. 백남준은 '호랑이는 살아있다'는 작품에서 한국이 21세기 세계의 주역이 될 수 있다는 격려사를 썼다. '호랑이는 살아있다'며 자신감을 가지고 나아가라고 독려했다. 한반도 연합(남북통일)이 세계 평화로 가는 지름길임을 선언하다.

 «Wrap around the World» // One week before the Olympic Games opened in Seoul, television stole a march on the ideal of international fellowship: over ten countries around the globe participated in a broadcast estimated to have attracted 50 million viewers. Unlike the «Good Morning Mr. Orwell» broadcast of 1 January 1984, the material transmitted was mainly produced by the participating broadcasters. Paik this time provided merely the global concept along with several contributions. With less transcontinental switching going on this time, it was possibly less of a direct ‘global' experience; on the other hand, the individual contributions had more time to reveal their intentions (if any). Clearly, entertainment was the dominating trend: the People's Republic of China offers Kung Fu and new pop music, Rio de Janeiro salsa rhythms and dancers, Ireland a rain-drenched motor race, Hamburg a concert for Brahms in a parking lot on the site of the composer's house, and Bonn a concert by punk band ‘Die Toten Hosen' in front of the house where Beethoven was born. A slapstick presenter in the central studio in New York linked up the contributions by demonstrating to an ‘Imperator' from outer space the beauties of the earth and so makes him revise his intention of destroying the world.
The wide range of stars from the pop music and art worlds included David Bowie, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Merce Cunningham; the «Transpacific Duet» performed by the latter in respectively Tokyo and New York was one of the artistic highpoints whose confrontation of cultures and videographics made for a unique live TV event.
The Olympic Games had brought about a change of heart in regard to Korea's attitude to prodigal son Paik – and Paik too remembered his roots after a 20-year period with almost no contact with his homeland. In Seoul's Museum of Modern Art, Paik mounted as a giant birthday cake his installation titled «The more the better,» which consisted of 1,003 monitors. Its title not only conveys Paik's self-irony but also a measure of scepticism in regard to South Korea's determination to join the premiere league of industrialized nations and the status symbols that mark such aspirations. There is nothing coincidental about the recurrence of the birthplaces of famous composers (Brahms, Beethoven) in the broadcast – Paik began his career in Seoul as a composer. Surprisingly, his only personal appearance shows him wearing a traditional Korean costume. While pressing up against his face, in line with the best days of Fluxus, the birthday cake that served as model for his video installation, his only words, repeated continuously, are: ‘Continue music'. Even if these words apply to the accompanying rhythm supplied by the Korean drummers encircling his installation in Seoul, it would be hard to come up with a better motto for «Wrap around the world.»