A variety of exhibitions, symposium and performances are set to open this week as the country marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of late video artist Paik Nam-june.
The Nam June Paik (NJP) Art Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, will open a special exhibition of the renowned Seoul-born artist's major works on Friday, Paik's birthday.
Subtitled "Nostalgia is an Extended Feedback," from the title of an essay Paik wrote in 1992, the exhibit shies away from a conventional retrospective and instead seeks to shed new light on the artist and thinker, with a thematic focus on cybernetics, according to the gallery.
It will offer a selective overview of his works, including "TV Garden," an iconic piece in the NJP Art Center; "One Candle," loaned by the MMT Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt; and "Three Camera Participation," from the Kunsthalle Bremen, an art museum in Bremen, Germany. "Marco Polo," "The Rehabilitation of Genghis Kan," and many more historical and contemporary figures interpreted as robot sculptures by Paik will also be displayed. About 70 works of other contemporary artists inspired by Paik's philosophy of art will round out the exhibition.
In addition, a separate section will offer a rare chance to view Paik's drawings, documents and photographs through archival displays and tablet computers.
On the opening day, performances by two of Paik's close friends -- Takehisa Kosugi, a Japanese composer and violinist associated with the Fluxus movement, and South Korea's gayageum musician Hwang Byung-ki -- will be given at the art center.
Several of Paik's major video works will screen on the huge media facade at Seoul Square, across from Seoul Station, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night from July 20 to Aug. 20.
An international symposium on Paik's art is also part of the commemorative events.
Several prominent experts, including Glenn Wharton, a rehabilitation expert of media art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Bernhard Serexhe, chief curator of the ZKM Art and Media Center in Germany; and William Kaizen, a professor of art history and media theory at Northeastern University in the U.S, will take part in the symposium at Gyeonggi Provincial Museum on Oct. 12.
Another special exhibition of Paik's work opened at the SOMA Museum of Art in southern Seoul on July 6 and will run through Sept. 16.
About 60 of Paik's sketches for sculptures and large-size installations are on display for the first time, along with some 110 photographs and newspaper articles on Paik.
Visitors can also see the artist's video sculptures, video installations, laser works and prints in the exhibition. (Yonhap)