백남준 탄생 90주년 특별전 《백남준의 보고서 1968-1979》는 백남준이 작성한 보고서에서 포착한 작가의 구상을 단초로, 정책가 백남준을 조명한다. 백남준은 미국 록펠러재단 아트 디렉터 하워드 클라인(Howard Klein)의 자문역으로서, 1965년 시작된 “텔레비전/비디오/필름” 부문 펀딩 초기 1967년부터 1986년까지 약 20년에 걸쳐 미디어아트에 대한 지원 당위성과 방향성 구축을 주도적으로 제안했다. 전시는 1968에서 1979년 사이 백남준이 작성한 3개의 보고서 「종이 없는 사회를 위한 확장된 교육」(1968), 「후기 산업사회를 위한 미디어 계획」(1974), 「어떻게 실험 비디오를 PBS 전국 방송에 존속시킬 것인가」(1979)를 토대로 작가의 사유를 좇으며, 예술을 매개로 사회 문제를 해결하고 세계를 연결하는 소통 체계를 구상한 백남준의 제안을 작품과 더불어 시각화한다.

《백남준의 보고서 1968-1979》 전시에는 통신매체의 변화사를 함축한 백남준아트센터 소장품 <코끼리 수레>(2001)를 비롯하여, 1993년 베니스비엔날레 독일관 전시 이후 1994년부터 시작된 백남준의 미국 순회전 《전자초고속도로》(The Electronic Super Highway: Travels with Nam June Paik, 1994)에 포함된 TV 로봇 <해커 뉴비>(1994), 교육, 통신, 환경, 건강 등 사회 변화의 주요 키워드로 구성한 <나의 파우스트> 13점 연작 중 하나인 <나의 파우스트: 자서전>(1989-1991) 등이 전시된다. 1960년대 사회 전환기에 사회기반시설과 기술 변화의 행위자이자 분석가, 미디어 컨설턴트 백남준을 들여다보는 일은 지금까지 백남준 연구에서 주목하지 못한 일련의 과제를 드러내는 동시에 그의 전자예술 작업들과의 새로운 접점을 마련한다. 지금, 또 한 번의 디지털 전환과 사회 변화의 한 가운데서 백남준의 미디어 컨설팅은 현재진행형이다. / 백남준아트센터

The Consultant: Paik’s Papers 1968-1979, a special exhibition on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Nam June Paik’s birth, sheds light on the policymaker Nam June Paik taking his ideas captured in the reports written by the artist as a starting point. Nam June Paik, as an adviser to Howard Klein, art director of the Rockefeller Foundation of the United States, took the initiative in suggesting the justification and direction of support for media art over 20 years from 1967 to 1986 in the early stage of funding for the “TV/Video/Film” sector that began in 1965. The exhibition follows the artist’s thoughts reflected the three reports written by Nam June Paik between 1968 and 1979, “Expanded Education for the paperless society”(1968), “Media Planning for the Post Industrial Age”(1974), and “How to keep Experimental Video on PBS National Programming”(1979), and visualizes Paik’s proposal of a communication system that solves social problems and connects the world through art.
The exhibition includes Elephant Cart (2001), a spectacular video sculpture in the Nam June Paik Art Center’s collection that encapsulates the history of changes in communication media, Hacker Newbie (1994), a TV robot shown in the American travelling exhibition The Electronic Super Highway: Travels with Nam June Paik which began in 1994 after Paik’s show at the German Pavilion of the Venice Biennale 1993, and My Faust: Autobiography (1989-1991), a piece from Paik’s series of “My Faust,” consisting of 13 works that deal with the major keywords of social changes, such as education, communication, environment, and health. Taking a look at Nam June Paik, as an agent of change both in social infrastructure and technology and as a media consultant in the 1960s during the social transition period, not only proposes a series of new tasks which have been rarely noticed in the research of the artist so far, but also provides a new contact point with his works of electronic art. Now, in the midst of another digital transformation and social change, Paik’s media consulting is still ongoing. / Nam June Paik Art Center