2025년 재개관과 APEC 경주 개최를 기념하여, 우양미술관은 백남준의 대표작과 아카이브를 아우르는 특별전을 선보입니다. 이번 전시는 1980년대 후반부터 1990년대에 이르는 백남준 예술의 전환기에 주목하며, 그 변화의 궤적을 다층적으로 조망합니다.
국내 최초로 공개되는 비디오 설치 연작 《나의 파우스트》 가운데〈나의 파우스트 – 경제학〉과 〈나의 파우스트 – 영혼성〉이 전시의 핵심을 이룹니다. 미국산 자동차와 한국 전통 가마를 결합한 대형 설치작 〈전자초고속도로 – 1929 포드〉는 2년 반의 복원 끝에 다시 관객 앞에 서며, 1991년 우양미술관 설립을 기념해 제작된 상징 조형물 〈고대기마인상〉도 함께 공개됩니다. 또한 비디오·오브제·사운드·조형 구조물이 융합된 매체 실험의 대표작〈음악 심〉과 〈푸가의 예술〉을 통해 백남준 특유의 경계를 넘어선 예술 세계를 총체적으로 경험할 수 있습니다.
이번 전시는 단순한 회고를 넘어, 그가 구축한 ‘기술–예술–인간’의 유기적 회로를 다시 걷는 실험이자, 2025 APEC이 던지는 세계적 의제를 예술의 언어로 사유 해보는 장이 될 것입니다.
The Wooyang Art Museum is pleased to host a special exhibition to celebrate its reopening in 2025, after undergoing full-scale renovations, as well as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit being held in Gyeongju. The exhibition will feature approximately 10 artworks from Paik’s personal collection that have been made available after extensive restoration work. Also on display will be archives from the 1990s Mark Patsfall, a printmaker and gallery owner who collaborated with Paik.
The late 1980s and 1990s was a transitional period for Paik. During these years, he employed diverse mediums (e.g. satellite, television, Internet, robot, performance) to playfully toe the lines dividing East and West, mental and material, and the arts and technology. Paik created a unifying, fluid message through the complex structures of his artworks, which is a quality shared by the theme of APEC 2025 Korea: “Building a Sustainable Tomorrow: Connect, Innovate, Prosper.”
This exhibition spotlights the transitional years of the late 1980s and 1990s. During this period, Paik portrayed technology not as a mode of expression or platform for audiovisual experimentation but, rather, as a medium that will one day open up a new realm for the human psyche and lead him to begin his engagement with communal thought. The many mediums that constitute his artworks (TV, satellite, robot, Internet, sound, performance, etc.) are intertwined as if they were a pile of tangled circuits, suggesting to us that East and West, mental and material, and the arts and technology can coexist within a single massive organic circuit instead of being warring entities. Nam June Paik: Humanity in the Circuits focuses on this perspective’s alignment with the vision of this year’s APEC Summit. Through artworks created during this fascinating period, it searches for traces of the love for humanity that Paik left behind throughout his technological circuits.
One key feature of the exhibition is two video installations from the My Faust series that are being made available to Korean audiences for the first time: My Faust: Economics and My Faust: Spirituality. The series, created between 1989 and 1991, was inspired by Goethe’s eponymous novel, finding intersections among topics such as capitalism, ethics, time, and existence within Eastern and Western philosophies and technological imaginings. The former visualizes the clash between capitalism and human values, while the latter questions whether the human mind and memory can survive given the finite lifespan of technological devices.
Another noteworthy artwork is the Electronic Super Highway – 1929 Ford series. It is a large-scale installation composed of a vintage car and a traditional Korean gama (palanquin), it is being displayed after two-and-a-half years of restoration work. The artwork is Paik’s visualization of his prophesy that technological networks will soon go beyond the role of transmitting information to connect nations, cultures, and individuals with one another in unprecedented ways. It poses a difficult question for those living in today’s hyper-connected era: how should we be connected?
Paik created Robot on A Horse, a long-time symbol of the Wooyang Art Museum, in 1991 to commemorate the museum’s establishment in Gyeongju, the “1,000-year capital” of the Silla Kingdom. He used the ancient Earthenware Funerary Objects in the Shape of a Warrior on Horseback that were excavated in Gyeongju as a motif for a representation of harmony between old and new infused with a deterritorial imperialism message of peace, using Mongolia’s horse-riding culture as a metaphor for the speed at which information will be able to travel. The artwork can be understood as a prophecy of what power will look like in the Internet age—in other words, a global order defined by the speed of communication networks and the ability to convey information.
Music, Mind and The Art of Fugue are prime examples of Paik’s experimentation with mediums such as video, objects, sound, and three-dimensional structures and his ability to subtly erase sensory boundaries. Bye Bye Kipling, Benevolence and Mind deal with the tension between East and West and the potential for their merging, proposing a model for intercultural interaction.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Nam June Paik, as an ethical artist, explored the definition of humanity through the language of technology. Nam June Paik: Humanity in the Circuits is far more than a retrospective: it retraces the organic circuits put into place by Paik to join technology, art, and humans. Ultimately, it is a space to think about globally-relevant agenda items of APEC 2025 through the universal language of art.
2025.07.20 - 2025.11.30
Overview
2025년 재개관과 APEC 경주 개최를 기념하여, 우양미술관은 백남준의 대표작과 아카이브를 아우르는 특별전을 선보입니다. 이번 전시는 1980년대 후반부터 1990년대에 이르는 백남준 예술의 전환기에 주목하며, 그 변화의 궤적을 다층적으로 조망합니다.
국내 최초로 공개되는 비디오 설치 연작 《나의 파우스트》 가운데〈나의 파우스트 – 경제학〉과 〈나의 파우스트 – 영혼성〉이 전시의 핵심을 이룹니다. 미국산 자동차와 한국 전통 가마를 결합한 대형 설치작 〈전자초고속도로 – 1929 포드〉는 2년 반의 복원 끝에 다시 관객 앞에 서며, 1991년 우양미술관 설립을 기념해 제작된 상징 조형물 〈고대기마인상〉도 함께 공개됩니다. 또한 비디오·오브제·사운드·조형 구조물이 융합된 매체 실험의 대표작〈음악 심〉과 〈푸가의 예술〉을 통해 백남준 특유의 경계를 넘어선 예술 세계를 총체적으로 경험할 수 있습니다.
이번 전시는 단순한 회고를 넘어, 그가 구축한 ‘기술–예술–인간’의 유기적 회로를 다시 걷는 실험이자, 2025 APEC이 던지는 세계적 의제를 예술의 언어로 사유 해보는 장이 될 것입니다.
The Wooyang Art Museum is pleased to host a special exhibition to celebrate its reopening in 2025, after undergoing full-scale renovations, as well as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit being held in Gyeongju. The exhibition will feature approximately 10 artworks from Paik’s personal collection that have been made available after extensive restoration work. Also on display will be archives from the 1990s Mark Patsfall, a printmaker and gallery owner who collaborated with Paik.
The late 1980s and 1990s was a transitional period for Paik. During these years, he employed diverse mediums (e.g. satellite, television, Internet, robot, performance) to playfully toe the lines dividing East and West, mental and material, and the arts and technology. Paik created a unifying, fluid message through the complex structures of his artworks, which is a quality shared by the theme of APEC 2025 Korea: “Building a Sustainable Tomorrow: Connect, Innovate, Prosper.”
This exhibition spotlights the transitional years of the late 1980s and 1990s. During this period, Paik portrayed technology not as a mode of expression or platform for audiovisual experimentation but, rather, as a medium that will one day open up a new realm for the human psyche and lead him to begin his engagement with communal thought. The many mediums that constitute his artworks (TV, satellite, robot, Internet, sound, performance, etc.) are intertwined as if they were a pile of tangled circuits, suggesting to us that East and West, mental and material, and the arts and technology can coexist within a single massive organic circuit instead of being warring entities. Nam June Paik: Humanity in the Circuits focuses on this perspective’s alignment with the vision of this year’s APEC Summit. Through artworks created during this fascinating period, it searches for traces of the love for humanity that Paik left behind throughout his technological circuits.
One key feature of the exhibition is two video installations from the My Faust series that are being made available to Korean audiences for the first time: My Faust: Economics and My Faust: Spirituality. The series, created between 1989 and 1991, was inspired by Goethe’s eponymous novel, finding intersections among topics such as capitalism, ethics, time, and existence within Eastern and Western philosophies and technological imaginings. The former visualizes the clash between capitalism and human values, while the latter questions whether the human mind and memory can survive given the finite lifespan of technological devices.
Another noteworthy artwork is the Electronic Super Highway – 1929 Ford series. It is a large-scale installation composed of a vintage car and a traditional Korean gama (palanquin), it is being displayed after two-and-a-half years of restoration work. The artwork is Paik’s visualization of his prophesy that technological networks will soon go beyond the role of transmitting information to connect nations, cultures, and individuals with one another in unprecedented ways. It poses a difficult question for those living in today’s hyper-connected era: how should we be connected?
Paik created Robot on A Horse, a long-time symbol of the Wooyang Art Museum, in 1991 to commemorate the museum’s establishment in Gyeongju, the “1,000-year capital” of the Silla Kingdom. He used the ancient Earthenware Funerary Objects in the Shape of a Warrior on Horseback that were excavated in Gyeongju as a motif for a representation of harmony between old and new infused with a deterritorial imperialism message of peace, using Mongolia’s horse-riding culture as a metaphor for the speed at which information will be able to travel. The artwork can be understood as a prophecy of what power will look like in the Internet age—in other words, a global order defined by the speed of communication networks and the ability to convey information.
Music, Mind and The Art of Fugue are prime examples of Paik’s experimentation with mediums such as video, objects, sound, and three-dimensional structures and his ability to subtly erase sensory boundaries. Bye Bye Kipling, Benevolence and Mind deal with the tension between East and West and the potential for their merging, proposing a model for intercultural interaction.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Nam June Paik, as an ethical artist, explored the definition of humanity through the language of technology. Nam June Paik: Humanity in the Circuits is far more than a retrospective: it retraces the organic circuits put into place by Paik to join technology, art, and humans. Ultimately, it is a space to think about globally-relevant agenda items of APEC 2025 through the universal language of art.
Exhibition preview
고대기마인상
Mixed Media
340x192x107cm
나의 파우스트 경제학
Mixed Media
311x192x107cm
전자초고속도로 1929 포드
Mixed Media
366x160x213cm