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Nam-Jun Paik created both indoor and outdoor works to pay tribute to the spirit of Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic games. Coubertin established the fundamental ideologies of the Olympics by incorporating the spirit of ancient Greece, which was based on the principles of personality, intelligence and physical strength, with the sportsmanship and strict training programs of the English rugby schools in the 19th century. Coubertin believed that the spirit of the Olympics should reside in the competition of the games coupled with fairness and the best effort, rather than in the outcome of victory or defeat.
Nam-Jun Paik made the character figure of Coubertin by arranging several monitors and represented the five rings of the Olympic flag, the symbol of the Olympics, by using materials of neon. This pure and peaceful spirit of the Olympics also relates to Nam-Jun Paik 's artistic spirit.

In other words, Coubertin tried to unify the earth with sports and Nam-Jun Paik tried to unify the whole world with his art. Coubertin also promoted the events of sports art.

It was an Olympic event to collect works of literature, painting, architecture, music, sculpture, photography, and more, which were used as subject matters in sports, thus contending for superiority of value. Sports art emerged from the forms of sporting events and has continued as a form of exhibition since1950.
As such, sports and art share a common point in displaying the pure and passionate aspects of the human being. By expressing the figure of Coubertin in the form of a robot, Nam-Jun Paik has tried to further extend the spirit of Coubertin, who developed the starting point in this endeavor.



Nam-Jun Paik demolished the border between the Orient and the West as well as art and technology by incorporating the traditional and classical subject matter of the golden crown from the period of the Baekjae Dynasty with that of digital technology. Baek tried to show the strong perseverance of our people through his works by saying that 'there is no golden crown in China or Japan.

We, the horse-riding people like Mongolia, have a golden crown. We are 'the people going on an outing' with great physical strength.' In addition, the golden crown of Baekjae displays highly advanced and refined gold and silver craftsmanship along with the perseverance of our people. Such refined elaborateness can also be felt in Nam-Jun Paik 's monitor screens, which are constructed with various visual images. Unlike the golden crown of Silla with symmetry and simplicity, the golden crown of Baekjae achieved exquisite harmony of spatial arrangement based on asymmetry over the unrestricted composition. China and Goguryeo influenced the art of Baekjae, which pursued harmony amidst freedom. It maintained the unique characteristics of elegance, refinement and delicateness. With the subject matter of the golden crown from Baekjae, Nam-Jun Paik used a number of monitors to create a work piece bridging between our tradition and the modern time.



Shigeko Kubota , wife of Nam-Jun Paik , was an avant-garde artist of the 20th century who practiced the art of communication and participation, the art of life and anti-genre art from the period of flux in the 1960s to that of video art after the 1970s. Shigeko Kubota represents the artistic identity of an Asian by providing an artistic spirit of the Orient to the video, the medium of western civilization.
Whereas Nam-Jun Paik , the founder of

video art, developed various artistic media of video sculpture and installation, performance, satellite broadcasting, lasers, etc., Shigeko developed her career by concentrating on creating videotapes and video sculpture.
Likewise, while Nam-Jun Paik revived avant-garde artists or historical figures such as John Cage and the Wright Brothers, with portraits of robots Shigeko portrayed the common people of our surroundings, such as a person skating or a woman jogging.
This robot jogging while holding dumbbells and with the hair flowing in the wind gives a sense of familiarity. At the same time, the shining stainless steel material adds a touch of pleasantness.





This is a demonstrative exhibition of 'Olympic Laser Water Screen 2001' installed in Mongchonhaeja. With the subject matter of the five rings from the Olympic flag, 'Geon, Gon, Gam and Yi' from the Korean flag, and movements as well as traces of stars traveling through the sky, this work expresses the idea that everything is controlled and operated with order and harmony based on the same principles as those of the movements of the entire universe.
Olympic Laser Water Screen 2001 is the representative piece of Nam-Jun Paik , who introduced the latest scientific technology of lasers into the domain of artwork.
Pictures are drawn with laser beams over the water jets and fog of the fountain. To achieve this effect, Baek used the characteristic of a laser beam becoming invisible in an ordinary atmosphere and only visible when passing through water particles.
The laser paintings reproduced various lines and curves including the crown shape Baek had drawn on television when he first started video art. Also, the five rings of the Olympic flag, the Taegeuk pattern of yin and yang, 'Geon, Gon, Gam, Yi' of Korean flag, and constellation designs are symbols representing the entire creations of the universe holding the principles of harmony and order just like the smooth sailing of the constellations.
This work displays the infinite beauty that can be reached with the harmony between human technology and nature by incorporating lasers of the latest technological power with the natural object of water. Also this is the very first laser artwork installed outdoors.



Megatron is a monumental installation work that is constructed of several monitors. The rapidly repeating and changing images and the unique composition of Nam-Jun Paik , provides a sense of animation to the uniformly arranged monitors. The monitors, which simultaneously display several images, individually serve as independent work pieces on their own. In addition, the overall composition of images consists of a gigantic wall of video to overwhelm the spectators.
In the age of modern information that is represented by terms like multi-media and high-media etc.; the digital medium is a powerful means to realize the imagination of humans. Nam-Jun Paik led such a trend and has newly created the existence method of art and image from the new paradigm of digital media. Baek has transferred art from the material world of paintings and sculptures to the immaterial world of electronic information.
Megatron is a work consisting of 150 monitors and has achieved an outstanding combination of video and computer graphics by using a computer-controlled laser disc player.
Computer images have been displayed together with the actual video images by applying elaborate digital sequences. Images included in Megatron narrate the history of speed, such as a scene of breaking the record for the 100m sprint.