On October 8th, 2018, the Nam June Paik Art Center (NJP Art Center) greets its ten year anniversary. In celebration of this, the NJP Art Center presents commemorative projects to ponder about the role of a museum and design the direction of the future museum. Along with the evaluation of the NJP Art Center’s past ten years, the staff members chose the motto of this 10th anniversary project to be “Art Commons, Nam June Paik”, after careful consideration on the relationships between art and politics, economy, society and environment.

Commemorating the 10th anniversary, the NJP Art Center will experiment the feasibility of museum as the commons based on the motto, “Art Commons, Nam June Paik” along with the works of artists who continue to ruminate the new ontology and communication method of art. This exhibition tracks the subversive thinking of Paik who believed “Art is not private property” and saw Video art as the commons. It will introduce the pioneering ideas of Paik who left his intellectual property accessible to everyone with works including Video Commune, which experimented his dream of “video common market” through the interactive exchange of video worldwide, and the Paik-Ave Video Synthesizer, which experimented the interactive exchange among media and the intervention of the artist and audience. Furthermore, this exhibition will also showcase the ideas of other pioneering artists whom proposed novel ontology of art such as Joseph Beuys, who believed “everyone is artist”, saw life itself as art and sought the possibility of political revolution within the arts.

백남준, <코끼리 마차>, 1999-2001, mixed mediam, 293x633x153cm,

Nam June Paik Art Center, Photo by Kyoungsoo Kim

The artists participating in #Art #Commons #NamJunePaik well represent the identity and direction of the NJP Art Center’s past ten years and they have been part of the museum’s previous exhibitions, performances, and education programs. For this exhibition, Ahn Kyuchul, Okin Collective, Dappertutto Studio, Unmake Lab, and Jeoung Jae choul will showcase new projects based on the concept of the ‘Commons’. Hwayeon Nam’s Imjingawa excavates the collective memory discovered while tracking the orally passed down community song. Rimini Protokoll’s 100% City series is performed by the 100 residents from certain city, and they represent the statistical composition of population, gender, goods and environment of that city. For this exhibition, Protokoll will present two different video performance series, 100% Gwangju and 100% Amsterdam. Jeoung Jae choul will introduce works that crossover the ‘tragedy’ and ‘hope’ found in the commons, employing the cultural anthropology report on the garbage patch found in the ocean, which is the commons for the entire humanity. Additionally, Bahc Yiso, Blast Theory, Part-time Suite, and Heman Chong will exhibit the scene of common goods shared by humanity, the interaction between local community and audience, and further express the ethical, political issue found in city development and the usage of the commons within the city.

남화연, <임진가와>, 2017, video, 24’16’’, courtesy of the artist

히만청, , 2016

Along with #Art #Commons #NamJunePaik, a separate archive exhibition, #NJPAC #10Years #Archive will be presented on the first floor of the NJP Art Center. This section will exhibit various words that represent the ten years of the NJP Art Center along with statistical analysis, photographs, graphics and published materials of the previous exhibitions, education programs and other public programs curated by the NJP Art Center. This archive exhibition will also provide a section for viewing audiovisual performances and to space to search information about the NJP Art Center. The visitors could experience the ten years of this museum by way of the nonlinear and organic arrangement of the archival materials. #NJPAC #10Years #Archive will be the grounds to witness the rapid change in the topography of Korean contemporary art’s past ten years through the digital and analogue records housed in the NJP Art Center.

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