Wrap around the Time – Part 1

Wrap around the World is a project Nam June Paik completed for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He tried to symbolize the end of the Cold War era by connecting all the regions and cultures around the world using the satellite system. Many countries including China and Russia across the East and West participated in this project, and the boundaries between genre and cultural hierarchies were dissolved. Most importantly, the project presented one, unified Earth beyond the limitations of physical distance by consolidating the physical realm of regional cultures using the satellite system. Nam June Paik Art Center’s Wrap around the Time builds on Wrap around the World, as a special exhibition planned for the 10th anniversary since Paik’s passing. The project attempts to go a step further from consolidating physical spaces, and dissolve/connect the temporal gaps between the past, present, and future. Such space-time compressions will take place through Paik, as well as the collaboration of contemporary artists. Nam June Paik Art Center selected contemporary media artists who will produce and prove various discourses across the past and the present by researching Paik’s works, building a research center comprising humanists, scientists, and aestheticians around the world. The exhibition will present their work in relation to with Paik’s works that serve as original inspirations. Though this process, we will be reminded of the fact that Paik’s art world stands firm at the foundation of various contemporary cultural phenomena and discourses. Through Wrap around the Time, various studies will be conducted about Paik, and new discourses will be generated. Also, Paik and contemporary artists will become one across the spatial and temporal gap between the 20th and the 21st centuries. Our focus is not only on re-illuminating Paik’s art, but also focusing on and verifying the infinite expandability of Paik’s artistic world.  

Joyce Hinterding | Monotone Rectilinear (VLF energy scavenging antenna) | 2016 | graphite, custom leads, mixer, headphones | dimensions variable | courtesy of Sarah Cottier Gallery

Shifting fields of electronic energy generate sound by binding with the energy arising from the viewers’ act of touching the drawing, shown in the form of a graffiti drawing installation. Viewer participation is part of the work itself, serving as the surrounding environment that materializes the electronic energy. The works of Joyce Hinterding explores physical and virtual aspects – her spiral graffiti gradually obtains a structure that resonates with energy, automatic purification, and narration. When amplified, the graffiti becomes an algorithm that generates audible sounds and manifests playable features. The spiral form exists as an invisible force of artistic patterns and circular loops, functioning as a capacity that demonstrates the “force of earth” or “the song of space”; apart from this poetic significance, this piece constantly functions by moving alongside the electromagnetic field.  

Artists A. Typist (Taeyong Kim, Hankil Ryu, lo wie), Bubble Deck Auto Wash Charlotte Norm, Cartsten Nicloai, Daisuke Yamashiro, David Haines, Isabella Fürnkäs, Joyce Hinterding, Jungki Beak, Raphaela Vogel, Ryu Biho, Sora Kim, UJINO, Vakki, Wang Yuyang, Zhang Peili

Honorary artists Paul Garrin, Ryuichi Sakamoto

Curators Dae Shik Kim, Gregor Jansen, Hyun-Suk Seo, Jaewon Yu, Jinsuk Suh, Mark B.N. Hansen, Mizuki Takahashi, Sungmin Hong, Young-june Lee, Yujoo Han, Zhang Ga

Wrap around the Time – Part 1

29 Jan. 2016-19 June 2016
Nam June Paik Art Center 1F

Wrap around the Time – Part 2

3 March 2016-3 July 2016
Nam June Paik Art Center 2F