Day to Remember Late ‘Father of Video Art’

Today marks one year anniversary of the death of Paik Nam-june, a groundbreaking Korean-born American video and performance artist.

Paik participated in the neo-Dada Fluxus movement in the 1960s along with other prominent artists of the time such as John Cage, Yoko Ono and Joseph Beuys. Before dying at the age of 74 last year, he was called ``the father of video art.’’ He is perhaps best known for his 1984 work ``Good Morning, Mr. Orwell,’’ the first international, live satellite installation linking New York, Paris, Berlin and Seoul.

Memorial services and exhibition openings are scheduled to take place today in Seoul, where Paik was born. A ceremony marking the publication of a book of recollections on the world-renowned artist, ``TV Buddha Namjune Paik’’ (Life and Dream, 220 pp., 30,000 won, in Korean), will be also held.

The array of events does not mean, however, that his native land was receptive to his pioneering spirit. The book to be published today, a collection of 52 essays on Paik written by prominent people in art and culture circles, is full of illustrative anecdotes on what Korean people thought of the eccentric contemporary artist’s works.

In ``Confession 20 Years On’’ by Sohn Seok-joo, for example, the former public relations officer for Korean conglomerate Samsung, recalls the ``crime’’ he committed out of ignorance.

In July 1986, Samsung Chairman Hong Jin-ki died. Paik, who received from Samsung the TV sets necessary for his installations, asked Sohn to relay a drawing to Ra-hee, Hong’s daughter and wife of Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, as a kind of letter of condolence.

Sohn was flabbergasted, however, upon seeing the drawing; it featured crude crayon markings and a folded rose with colored paper attached to it. Sohn agonized over whether to deliver the drawing, as he feared both reproach from the receiver and soured relations with Paik. Sohn kept the drawing secret and forgot about it altogether.

``Please forgive my hypocrisy, Mr. Paik. In public, I trumpeted your works as the best art, but in my own mind I could not understand your artistic world, so I ended up throwing your creative, unconventional drawing into the dustbin,’’ he wrote. ``A person as ordinary in the aesthetic and artistic sense as myself could not understand your revolutionary, cutting-edge art.’’

Apparently, things have changed. Events are lined up to show that the late artist’s achievements are fully appreciated here and now. Paik’s wife, Japanese-American artist Shigeko Kubota, arrived in Seoul on Saturday to attend them.

At the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kwachon, Kyonggi Province, a ceremony to remember Paik will take place at 11 a.m., attended by about 100 dignitaries. ``My Life With Namjune Paik,’’ a 70-minute film edited by Kubota, will be screened. The museum will also hold a retrospective on Paik from March 23 to May 6 featuring the artist’s works prior to his video installation projects as well as his early video artworks.

Two exhibitions highlighting Paik open today. In Chamwon-dong, southern Seoul, Philip Kang Gallery hosts photographer Lee Eun-joo’s exhibition, which runs through Feb. 28. Lee recorded Paik’s life in New York and visits to South Korea with photos. For more information, call (02) 517-9014/5.

At Gallery Ssamzie in Insa-dong, northern Seoul, an exhibition titled ``Namjune Paik and Fluxus Friends’’ will continue until March 18. The exhibition features photographs, texts and films that shed light on the artistic world and life of other Fluxus movement members, as well as Paik.

At the opening ceremony, scheduled for 2 p.m. today at Ssamziegil, Kim Keum-hwa, a female shaman designated an Intangible Cultural Property, will perform ``kut,’’ a traditional Korean shamanistic ritual that is aimed at communicating with the dead. Paik himself conducted a kut for his deceased artist friends _ for Joseph Beuys at Gallery Hyundai in Seoul and for Charlotte Moorman in Central Park in New York _ as performance art.

For more information about events organized by Gallery Ssamzie, call (02) 736-0088 (ext. 607).

The South Korean government has organized a massive retrospective on Paik at the International Contemporary Art Fair of Madrid, ARCO, in Spain. As part of the programs that highlight Korea at the fair, 86 of Paik’s works dealing with the theme of Korea and Koreans will be on display at the Telefonica Foundation exhibition hall from Feb. 13 to May 20.

The Namjune Paik Museum has also been established in Yongin, Kyonggi Province, funded by the Gyeonggi Culture Foundation. The museum is scheduled to open later this year.

Upon returning to Korea in 1984 after spending 34 years abroad, Paik dropped a bomb by declaring that half of art is fraud. ``You trick and trick again. Among frauds, it’s a high-class fraud. Something that baffles the masses _ that’s art.’’

More than 20 years on, many are more than willing to become part of Paik’s fraud.