Tang Contemporary Art is proud to present the internationally renowned artist Nam June Paik in its Hong Kong space from September 24th to October 16th, 2021.

 The founder and pioneer of video art, Nam June Paik - a cosmopolitan who was born in Seoul and made his home in the East as well as the West through Hong Kong, Japan, and Germany until his death in the United States - drew a future where humans, technology, and nature could be in perfect harmony. Confronting the gloom of the mass media oppressing and controlling humanity, he presented a world where technology and humans coexist, and contrary to a line from Kipling’s poem, “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,” he worked by connecting the United States, Korea, and Japan via satellite. The artist predicted that the East and the West would be joined through media and that people around the world would communicate with one another in real time. 

Paik studied aesthetics as well as music and art history at the University of Tokyo before moving to Germany, where he started to gain fame as the “Destruction Artist” in his avant-garde experimental performance from 1959. During that span, he also presented a sensational performance with Joseph Beuys, and their deep friendship can be seen in his work Beuys Vox. Paik then took a step further from destructive art and attempted to visualize sounds. His first solo exhibition Exposition of Music - Electronic Television was held at Galeire Parnass on March 11, 1963. It was the first video exhibition in history, thus making him the founder of video art. He then would induce active interaction between his works and the audience by rejecting the one-sided transmission system of television and transforming the screen with the help of voices in the audience. This action contained his philosophy that art without communication is just another form of dictatorship.

Gallery address: 10/F, H Queen’s, Central