Introduction

Columbus – in search of a new tomorrow

Few artists, if any, have influenced video and media art to the same extent as Nam June Paik. Alongside Les Levine, the Korean-born artist could even claim to be a founder of these art forms. As early as 1969, Paik presented a performance by cellist Charlotte Moorman, who was wearing a bra consisting of two small television receivers enclosed in Plexiglas. “TV Bra for Living Sculpture” was one of his very first video works. Fascinated by the possibilities of the new medium of video, Paik turned televisions into sculptural artworks. “Television has been terrorising us for years, now we are fighting back,” he is often quoted as saying.

Paik fled his homeland in 1950 during the Korean War, then studied in Tokyo, Munich and Freiburg before finally – following his formative engagement with the Fluxus movement – accepting a position as a Professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. His work with John Cage played a decisive role in his artistic development. In 1959, just one year after meeting the American artist and composer in Darmstadt, Paik produced an “Homage to John Cage”. He was to become world famous for his remarkable installation of 384 monitors in the Centres Georg Pompidou in Paris, which he followed with exhibitions in New York’s Guggenheim, Frankfurt’s Schirn Kunsthalle, and at documenta 8 in Kassel. Paik passed away in 2006, but his influence on media art perseveres; his playful and highly ironic approach remains unparalleled.  
This untitled work is a single sheet from the international art portfolio “Columbus – in search of a new tomorrow”, which was created for the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Paik worked alongside artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Christo, and Sigmar Polke for this extraordinary collection. Conceived by Michael Domberger and Dr Florian Langenscheidt, 37 artists took part in the project to protest against the destruction of nature in South America.

In the work, Paik repeats the Chinese character for “dream” to create a pattern that appears to be in continual motion. The writing seems to be rotating quickly, almost dancing. The screen print represents a coming together of the different media Paik worked with: ideas from music, dance, and video combine with a dynamic, ornamental quality. One could be forgiven for mistaking it for a screenshot from one of his video installations.

In May 1999, while Paik was still alive, the art magazine ARTnews named him as one of the 25 most influential artists of the 20th century alongside Picasso, Duchamp, and Rauschenberg.

Hannah Hör

Bio

1932	Born in Seoul, Korea
1952-1956	Studied Western Aesthetics, Music History, and Art History at the Universtiy of Tokyo
1956-1958	Studied Music History at the University of Munich and Composition under Wolfgang Fortner at the Freiburger Musikhochschule
1960s	Member of the Neo-Dadaist group, Fluxus
1958-1963	Worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen in the WDR (West German Broadcasting) studio for electronic music in Cologne
1969	Developed the Video-Synthesizer with Shuya Abe
1979-1996	Professor at Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf
2006	died in Miami Beach, USA

Awards

1981	Will Grohmann Prize
1989	Kurt Schwitters Prize, Hanover
1991	Goslarer Kaiserring
1992	Picasso Medal from UNESCO
1993	Golden Lion for the best national pavillion at the Venice Biennale
1998	Kyoto Prize
2001	Wilhelm Lehmbruck Prize, awarded by the City of Duisburg

Exhibitions

2011	Ich sehe, also weiss ich (nicht), Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
2010	Das im Entschwinden Erfasste. Videokunst im Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
	Changing Channels, MUMOK Vienna, Vienna, Austria
	MOCA’s First Thirty Years Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA
	DIE KUNST IST SUPER!, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Berlin
2009	RECORD > AGAIN!–40jahrevideokunst.de – Teil, 2. ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
	Nam June Paik: Music for all Senses, MUMOK Vienna, Vienna, Austria
	The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
	Made in Munich, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
	The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
2008	DANS LA NUIT, DES IMAGES, Grand Palais, Paris, France
	Notation: Kalkül und Form in den Künsten, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
	Vom Funken zum Pixel, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany
2007	Art in America, Now, MOCA Shanghai, China
	Centre Pompidou Video Art, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2006	Berlin-Tokyo / Tokyo-Berlin Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
	SUMMER OF LOVE, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
2005	ÜBER SCHÖNHEIT, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
	Flick Collection, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
2004	Nam June Paik – Global Groove 2004, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany
2002	Räume des XX. Jahrhunderts, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
	Televisions – Kunst sieht fern, Kunsthalle Vienna, Vienna, Austria
2001	Paul Kos / Nam June Paik, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
2000	Aller Anfang ist MERZ, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
	The Worlds of Nam June Paik, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
1999	VIDEO CLUB 99, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
1997	Die Epoche der Moderne - Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany
1996	sonambiente, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
1995	4. Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
1993	45. Biennale Venedig, Venice, Italy
1990	44. Biennale Venedig, Venice, Italy
1987	19. Biennale São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
	8. documenta, Kassel, Germany
1982	Erste Retrospektive im Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
1977	6. documenta, Kassel, Germany
1971	happening & fluxus Kölnischer Kunstverein
1963	Exposition of music – electronic television, Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal, Germany