NAM JUNE PAIK: Timeline (1958-1968)
March 11th – 20th Exposition of Music – Electronic Television, Paik’s first solo show at Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal. During this landmark exhibition, which is regarded as the birth of media art, Paik presented prepared pianos, sound objects, manipulated television sets, etc. (The invitation flyer held important introductory remarks by Paik and Jean-Pierre Wilhelm.) During Exposition of Music a few Fluxus products were also on view; Maciunas presented them in the gallery kitchen. Right after the exhibition Paik went to Tokyo to learn about the latest developments in color television. In 1964 he moved to New York. In the coming years his work would be shaped by new elements like video and performances with Charlotte Moorman. (For more on this subject see: Edith Decker: Paik Video, Cologne 1988.) 1965
In 1965 I planned my first concert tour of Europe with Charlotte Moorman. Artistically Charlotte will fill the gap left open, that is, a combination of serious music and sex, but I also had to renew my tourist visa abroad and at the same time collect money from the sales of Japanese transistor radios which I imported to Germany in 1963. (Nam June Paik: Beuys Vox 1961-1986, catalog. Won Gallery/Hyundai Gallery, Seoul [no year], p. 31.) May – June During their European tour Paik and Charlotte Moorman performed in Cologne (Galerie Zwirner, May 22nd 1965) and Aachen (the Technical University), where they presented (among other pieces) Cello Sonata No. 1 and Rondo Allegro. For me the most interesting were the happenings that took place here. Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman held concerts. One time Paik played the ‘Moonlight Sonata’; he was very well dressed and sat with his back to the audience. Then suddenly he stood up, dropped his trousers and mooned the audience. Then he sat down again and played something for half an hour – just noodling, and making the craziest sounds. (Rudolf Zwirner, interviewed by Gabriele Lueg, Wulf Herzogenrath & Gabriele Lueg (editors): Die 60er Jahre, Kölns Weg zur Kunstmetropole. Vom Happening zum Kunstmarkt, catalog. Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne 1986, p. 378.)
June 5th 24 Stunden – a happening at Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal, with Joseph Beuys, Bazon Brock, Ute Klophaus, Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, Eckart Rahn, Tomas Schmit and Wolf Vostell. Paik said of his participation: Charlotte and I were supposed to play John Cage’s piece, but as soon as our performance was to begin, Charlotte fell into a sleep from which she refused to awaken, however shrilly I shouted and shook her. I at my wit’s end, so I pretended to be asleep playing La Monte Young’s piano piece. The audience waited for a while, but seeing the
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