프랑스 미술관의 초기 백남준 예술 수용의 맥락과 의미: 미술관 제도의 관점에서 = An Institutional Approach to the Reception of Nam June Paik in French Art Museums During the 1970s: Contexts, Characteristics, and Meanings

Abstract

This study explores the initial reception process of Nam June Paik in French public art museums during the 1970s. Paik's video art was first introduced to French art museums in the mid-70s in a series of historical video art exhibitions held at the Musee d'art moderne de la ville de Paris (Art Video, Confrontation 74, ARC2; Retrospective de Nam June Paik, 1978–1979) and at the Musee national d'art moderne - MNAM/CCI ( Jardin-Videos , 1978). The paper analyzes the historical contexts, characteristics, and socio-cultural meaning of these early video art exhibitions in relation to the French museum and artistic landscape of the 1970s. In particular, the study examines the favorable cultural and institutional context that fostered the historical reception of Paik's video art in France: the inauguration of the Centre Pompidou (1977), a new type of museum that reserved specific space for new media and contemporary art, offering a desperately awaited new dimension to late modern and contemporary art. The paper also discusses the top-down intraduction process of Paik's early video art in France as well as its significant influence in the development of early French video art history, specifically in relation to the environment of post-68 local artistic scene. In so doing, the study aims to deconstruct the somewhat monolithic and mythical existing historical discourses concerning the artist, suggesting the need for further studies of his work in relation to the cultural, social, political, and historical contexts of its emergence and institutionalization.