IN 1963, NAM June Paik hung a blood-dripping cow head at the entrance of his first solo exhibition “Exposition of Music – Electronic Television” in Germany, shocking those at the scene and the German art circle.

He continued to shock people with experimental and radical performances and said in several media interviews that he wanted to be remembered as a “crazy Corean”.

At the same show, Joseph Beuys gave a performance in which he destroyed a piano on display with an axe. The performance was similar to Paik’s performance the previous year in which he had smashed a violin after lifting it up deliberately and slowly for five minutes on a stage in Germany. Paik’s early radical performances earned him the moniker “Terrorist from the East” among Westerners, who viewed breaking a violin into pieces as a challenge to the tradition of Western classical music.

Among his many performances, Paik’s breaking the violin was restaged frequently from the 1960s and 1980s.

On January 28, Paik’s iconic violin performances were enacted by Korean artist Kim Tschang-yeul, known for his water drop paintings, one day ahead of the 10th anniversary of Paik’s passing. The performance also opened the Gallery Hyundai show “Nam June Paik: When he was in Seoul,” which pays tribute to Paik’s legacy. It runs until April 3.

The 87-year-old artist walked with a cane to support himself while dragging a violin from one Gallery Hyundai building to the other, covering a distance of less than 100 metres. He entered the second Gallery Hyundai building, stopped in front of a white table, held up the violin and smashed it in one motion.

“Violins make delicate sounds. This is a resistance to the delicate sound,” said Kim. “I thought Paik would have thought that way and that may be the reason he destroyed it.”

If Paik were still alive, he would be three years younger than him, said Kim. Kim met Paik in New York, along with artist Kim Whan-ki, who was working in New York at the time, and two gallerists from South Korea, including then head of Gallery Hyundai Park Myung-ja, in 1983. She is now the gallery’s chairperson.

Another performance by one of Paik’s collaborators, Jean-Paul Fargier, captured the attention of many visitors at last week’s opening. Fargier, a French producer and researcher, had worked with Paik, filming some of his performances, including the 1990 shamanic ritual in Seoul that was held to commemorate German Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys, a long-time friend of Paik’s.

The 1990 performance was one that had been a long time coming. Paik and Beuys had promised to do the performance together in time for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. They planned to merge their souls together, respectively representing Korea and Eurasia, through a shamanic ritual. However, things did not go as planned as Beuys died two years before the Olympic Games. Paik realised his promise in 1990 in the backyard of the Gallery Hyundai with Korean shamans and symbolic objects that represented different aspects of Beuys and himself – a piano, two hats made of cement, a television and candles, among other items.

Fargier brought with him the white robe and hat Paik had worn at the ritual that the late artist had performed. He lit a candle inside an empty TV screen and looked at the Korean shamanic altar that had piles of apples, pears and a steamed pig head. He covered the broken piano with the robe and walked around the cement hat that resembled Beuys’ trademark fedora.

“I have seen many works of Nam June Paik, but this exhibition is very meaningful to me,” said Fargier, who met Paik in 1978 in France.

The commemorative exhibition displays Fargier’s 1990 film “Play It Again, Nam,” a video documentary biography of Paik, which shows his early works and artistic endeavours, as well as pictures of him as a child.

Gallery Hyundai’s exhibition marks the 10th anniversary of Paik’s death, but also sheds light on Paik’s works related to his home country Korea.

“This exhibition is more than a commemorative show that marks his death, but a retrospective held so many years later in his home country, encompassing his lifetime works,” said Lee Yong-woo, director of Shanghai Himalayas Museum in Shanghai, in his essay for the exhibition.

Paik became known to Koreans through his 1984 satellite performance broadcast on the state-owned network broadcaster KBS on January 1. The transcontinental broadcast, “Good Morning Mr Orwell,” began with the phrase “George Orwell, you were half right,” with the intention to rebut George Orwell’s “1984” and highlight positive aspects of media use. He visited Korea for this project, his first visit in 34 years after he and his family moved to Japan in 1950.

His first robot sculptures made with antique televisions and radios were associated with Korean history and culture. The “Family of Robot” series consisted of three generations of a family, including a grandfather, grandmother, father, mother and child, recalling Paik’s childhood in Seoul. Paik made other robot series inspired by historic figures, such as King Sejong of the Joseon era (1392-1910) and Queen Seondeok of the Silla Kingdom (BC 57-AD 935). The Seoul exhibition displays the grandfather and grandmother robot sculptures.

“Paik once compared video art to bibimbap. Video is a mix of aesthetic components and holds brave languages that represent democracy, resistance, aesthetic non-deterministic factors, anti-authoritarianism,” wrote Lee.

“There are many titles for Nam June Paik – pioneer of media art, avant-garde musician, Fluxus artist, technology philosopher, video shaman and information alchemist. But few researchers have studied these different aspects of Paik. This exhibition may be the start of a long research into his artistic endeavours,” he added.

A TEACHER LIFTS his thumb, index finger and little finger to say “I love you” in sign language, and the smiles widen on his students’ faces.

At the Setsatian School for the Deaf in Bangkok, more than six months have passed since retired Fukuoka art teacher Junichi Takaishi, 61, took up his post as a senior overseas volunteer for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

“Whether in Japan or Thailand, whether able to hear or not, students are students. They react honestly to my sincerity whenever I do my best to teach them,” Takaishi says. His belief in his students, cultivated as a teacher in Japan, has strengthened with his latest assignment.

Raised in Fukuoka Prefecture, both of Takaishi’s parents were teachers. He started his career at an advertising design company, but at the age of 25 he became a design teacher at Kyushu High School, which is affiliated with Kyushu Sangyo University, in Fukuoka city.

He also appeared on the NTV network’s “Kinchan’s All Japan Costume Grand Prix” television show, guiding his students to victory. At the age of 53, he moved to Nakamura Gakuen Sanyo Junior High School and Senior High School in Fukuoka city.

Then, at age 60, with two years remaining until mandatory retirement, Takaishi opted to quit his job early.

“I’d done all I set out to do as a teacher,” Takaishi says, adding that he had long wished to challenge himself abroad.

He had lived for a short time in Stockholm and London, but still felt unfulfilled. He raised two sons after divorcing before 50 years old, but after his second son entered university, Takaishi found himself at a point in his life when he could pursue his goal to go abroad.

Familiar with the JICA senior volunteer system, he applied and was accepted in the summer of 2014. After receiving training in the Thai language and other useful skills at a JICA training office, he entered Thailand in March 2015.

He still has a housing loan but used his retirement allowance to pay it down and reduce his monthly payments to 55,000 Japanese yen (Bt16,700) Before leaving Japan, he also paid his second son’s university tuition fees for his fourth year. He pays his domestic expenses in Japan with his allowance from JICA, his savings and other means.

In Thailand, Takaishi makes his own breakfast and dinner, and eats school lunches with his students. Prices are lower than in Japan and, with the money for living expenses he receives from JICA, he suffers few inconveniences.

At school, he teaches 15 small classes a week, each consisting of about 10 high school students. He initially planned to teach only pottery making but has expanded his lessons to general art.

Though still learning Thai sign language, he compensates for any lack of understanding with the physical artwork he shows his students and with his enthusiastic gestures.

“It appears to be pantomime, but I can’t be beaten in terms of passion for teaching,” he says with a laugh, adding that he is once again enjoying the joys and responsibilities of teaching.

Senior overseas volunteers are a JICA project that began in fiscal 1990. At the end of October 2015, 444 people were working to 59 countries under the project. In total, 5,831 people have been dispatched to 73 countries.

Their fields of activity include agriculture, administration, quality control, health and medical work.

Applications are accepted twice a year in spring and autumn, and are based on requests from recipient countries. The target age for recruitment is from 40 to 69, and the dispatch period is two years in principle.

JICA pays US$570 to US$1,510 (Bt25,500 to Bt54,100) for monthly living costs and provides return transportation fees. The recipient countries offer accommodation. Those under 65 years old receive an allowance of 55,000 Japanese yen per month for domestic expenses in Japan during their dispatch periods.

MUSLIN, THE FAMOUS plain-weave cotton fabric of Bangladesh, will bask in the spotlight next month as the renowned Drik agency hosts a month-long national exhibition at the Nalini Kanta Bhattashali Gallery, Bangladesh National Museum.

Opening on February 5, the exhibition will feature muslin artefacts and also relate the story behind this famed fabric.

The opening will also feature a book launch that will inform the readers about the origins of muslin, its links with Bengal and Europe and cover the journey that Drik undertook to discover its roots.

The book, titled “Muslin – Our Story” features stunning imagery taken by world-class photographers as well as other rare historical images. A trailer of the documentary film “Legend of the Loom” will also be screened on opening day and promises some interesting spoilers.

Following its opening, the Festival will host a Muslin Night on February 6 at Ahsan Manzil. The event is designed to boost public awareness of muslin’s history and also to display the revival of muslin weaving.

Lubna Marium and her dance group, Shadhona are set to perform the Muslin story against a historical setting, while current jamdani styles will be displayed by Aarong and the future of muslin portrayed through dresses made by fashion designers from the UK, India and Bangladesh.

The Muslin Night will be followed by a day of seminars and workshops on February 7, providing a platform for national and international experts to discuss some of the issues including muslin’s future, its legacy in Bangladesh and to develop plans for marketing the product. This is an open event with seats reserved on a first-come-first-served basis.

A Muslin Tour of Panam Nagar, Sonargaon and adjoining jamdani villages is scheduled for February 6 and will include a look around the English factory buildings where muslin was collected, assessed and packed prior to shipment. Participants can also meet the weavers who are responsible for producing the wonderful jamdani designs on the loom.

“Muslin is a story that initially came to us when Stepney Trust in the UK wanted to do an exhibition,” says Drik chief executive Saiful Islam.

“When we started to enquire about the cloth, we found that there were more dimensions to the story then simply the fine fabric and its designs. Initially what seemed like simply a craft revealed multiple dimensions including political, cultural, colonial, and social ones. Finding those dimensions made us look deeper and wider. It enlarged the radius of our enquiry, made us search for the plant, the spinners and weavers, even the garments themselves, which were missing.

“On the one side, you see that it’s so rich and so loved by the world. Then, you look at the other side and you quickly discover Bangladesh has nothing, no records, no artefacts. We realised we needed to do justice, to uncover the full story behind muslin and fill in these large missing gaps. We started to get involved in the weaving and became involved in the actual art of muslin. We also started to wonder what had happened to the cotton plant. What started from a research viewpoint quickly moved into the practical area. We evolved into hands-on researchers,” he continues.

“All along our aim was to establish an authentic story of muslin with all its dimensions, to make an effort at inspiring other people to revive a lost art and to also bring respect and attention to the craftspeople behind this story. The real people are the weavers and the farmers. I think that these people need to be recognised and acknowledged as the heroes behind the woven air of muslin.”