Installation view of 《Duett: Takis and Nam June Paik》 © White Cube Seoul
White Cube Seoul presents 《Duett: Takis and Nam June Paik》, an
exhibition bringing sculpture by the late-Greek artist Takis (1925–2019) into
dialogue with multimedia works by South Korean artist Nam June Paik
(1932–2006), on view through June 2.
Taking inspiration from their cacophonous
musical collaboration in 1979, Duett pairs these two great
artistic innovators of the 20th century in an exhibition for the first time,
highlighting how they fused technology, science and art through autodidactic
experimentation.
Installation view of 《Duett: Takis and Nam June Paik》 © White Cube Seoul
Both artists shared an interest in Zen
Buddhism; both looked up to John Cage, whose study of Zen and Daoism had opened
a door to listening. Silence was a new way to think about music. The composer
need no longer be the controlling arbiter of all that happened. Instead, they
could be the instigator of a process in which chance was given space to
determine the nature of the work.
On 20 June 1979, their differences and
mutual resonances converged in an installation/performance called Duett.
This rapid journey through Romantic, Baroque and the Middle Ages echoes the
concert programming of so-called classical music, in which multiple eras of
musical history are tightly compressed into a single evening’s entertainment.
Installation view of 《Duett: Takis and Nam June Paik》 © White Cube Seoul
Paik’s erratic recital is disrupted (though
seemingly untroubled) by crashing and clanking from the Takis sculptures.
Today, forty-seven years later, this “duet” between
the two artists is being restaged at White Cube Seoul. Comprising four works by
Nam June Paik and seventeen works by Takis, the exhibition creates a posthumous
