Art Commons, Nam June Paik

Curator: Chaeyoung Lee, Sooyougn Lee

Artists: Hwayeon Nam, Dappertutto Studio, Rimini Protokoll, Bahc Yiso, Nam June Paik, Blast Theory, Ahn Kyuchul, Unmake Lab × Data Union Collective, Okin Collective, Joseph Beuys, Jeoung Jae Choul, Part-time Suite, Heman Chong
 

The Nam June Paik Art Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary on October 8, 2018. In commemoration, the Nam June Paik Art Center questions the role of the future museum and designs its direction to move forward. Along with the evaluation of the past ten years, the members of the Nam June Paik Art Center have decided the motto of 10th anniversary project to be Art Commons, Nam June Paik, as a result of careful consideration of the relationships among art and politics, economy and society.

Art Commons, Nam June Paik inherits Nam June Paik’s belief, “Art is not private property.” In his writing, “Global Groove and Video Commune” (1970), Paik proposed the concept, “Commons,” by which he meant a video common market where active exchange and distribution of information would occur by free video communication, modeled after European Common Markets. His ideas are not only in close relation to the contemplation of democratic creation and usage of the arts pursued by the Fluxus, which Paik was also a member of, but it is also extended into the experimental direction of the Nam June Paik Art Center for the following projects.

First, the commons include both natural resources like water, air, mountain and ocean, and invisible assets like language and culture. They are to be sustainable public goods managed in a collaborative effort by the community. Art Commons, Nam June Paik will explore through variety of experiments how the pubic space of museum would transform and develop into a communal space-the commons.

Second, the commons encompass not only the physical space of Nam June Paik Art Center but also the museum’s collections, and the tangible and intangible knowledge accumulated within the museum. Art Commons, Nam June Paik will search for ways for the museum laborers and volunteers, artists, visitors and local residents to use the commons under joint regulation.

Third, the inaugural mission of the Nam June Paik Art Center as “A house where Nam June Paik lives long” is to encourage the engagement of the next generation with an innovative mind like Paik. “Art Commons, Nam June Paik” will experiment how this inaugural mission would comply with the idea of the future museum as a “dissonant space of multitude of voices and counter-voices”(Pascal Gielen),  functioning as public sphere.
 

International symposium: Future museum: Public to Commons
October 12–13, 2018

Curator: Sooyougn Lee

Speakers: Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Seon Ryeong Cho, Taehun Lim, Massimiliano Mollona, Sohyun Park, Binna Choi, Taeyoon Choi, Ade Darmawan

Public program

Metamuseum Project
October–November 2018

Curator: Minwha Cho, Bora Kim

Artists: Seongwon Kim, Geunse Lee, Juyeon Lee, Taeyoon Choi, Joon Kim