the tri-continental Nam June Paik

Recently, a friend returned from her trip to Germany with a big book on the Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal. In 1963, young musician and fluxus artist Nam June Paik had just finished his studies in Germany and staged his first solo show at Galerie Parnass, a vivid center of avantgarde art in those days. Paik's show is remembered today as the coming out party of Video Art. Among the exhibited pieces were a "Prepared W.C.", an interactive audio tape installation mounted on the wall, and a room full of 13 TV's, all electronically manipulated to display a different "strange" image. Paik also offered his insights from "A Study of German Idiotology". You can tell, everybody must have had a great time at Galerie Parnass.


Nam June Paik's "Exposition of Music & Electronic Television" at Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal, Germany 1963 (BIG:720KB)

Paik of course soon after moved to New York where he bought one of the first SONY Video Porta-Paks and became the revered "George Washingtone of Video Art". During the next 30-40 years Paik has been at the forefront of exploring and defining this new medium. In his studio in SoHo he created the many, many pieces which were shown in numerous museums and galleries world-wide, as well as on many TV programs and videos. During all those years chances were that you'd run into Nam June at the Frankfurt-Main airport (as I did once in the 80s) since he was "commuting" back and forth between the US and Germany to meet his teaching obligations at the famed Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, the place where his friend and fluxus buddy Joseph Beuys tought (or did Beuys hold court there?)


Take a peek inside NJP's studio in SoHo, New York

It was only in the last couple of years that the Korean born artist returned again to visit his homeland. For the 1988 Seoul Olympics, he created the tower “The More the Better,” an installation comprising 1003 video monitors and he kicked off the Seoul Olympics with a global satellite TV show. In passing, it is interesting to note that he switched from using the Japanese brand SONY to electronics made by the Korean manufacturer Samsung (a tell-tale sign about current shifts in the global marketplace).


Look here for a nice web rendition of The More the Better

It will be interesting to see what will happen to his legacy once the newly founded Paik Nam June Museum (notice the Korean order of names!) will open its doors in the Province of Gyeonggi in 2008. The founding committee has just recently selected German architect Kirsten Schemel to do the job and construction will commence shortly. Good to know that the tri-continental nomad NJP will find a permanent home.

Finally, a few web pointers to his work (as far as I know, no single "official" web site exists today):
- Paik's Global Groove at the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin
- From Wagner to VR by Randall Packer