[Editorial] Paik Nam June's Free Spirit

A foreign artist once said that though people have grown up looking at the paintings of Impressionists, our descendants will grow up watching video art. He was talking about the video artist Nam June Paik, a man whose name was known to Koreans while his art was ignored. He was actually someone who was quite imposing. Most of all it was his free spirit that was hard to approach. His shocking provocations and uninhibited artistic acts made those comfortable with the status quo very uncomfortable. How shocking it must have been for artists of portentous tendencies when they heard him define art as "fraud."

He was not merely trying to insult the artistic establishment. He sought to create a new artistic form and content that would express the spirit of changed times. He called his first meeting with the avant-garde artist John Cage in 1958 the most unforgettable in his life because Cage taught him what freedom is, but during a performance in 1960 he cut Cage's necktie off. In 1998 he did an accidental nude performance while meeting former U.S. president Bill Clinton. It was with that spirit that he combined video, sound, and sculpture to complete a genre that would embody the spirit of the times. He combined science and art with things like video, satellites, and lasers, and by doing so he sought to eliminate gap between art and life.

People talk about freedom but they still tend to lean on stronger forms of strength, tradition, and rules. Artists and intellectuals should live on freedom but they stress the authority of the establishment, and mainstream society submits to capital and the market all in the name of that freedom. He earnestly wanted to return to Korea, but his art would not have been possible in that kind of climate. One hopes that his belated return following cremation will revive the spirit of freedom in our society.

The Hankyoreh, 1 February 2006.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]