Rehabilitation of Genghis-Khan
Date/ 1993
Artist(Credit Line)/ Nam June Paik
Classification/ Sculpture
Nam June Paik, The Rehabilitation of Genghis-Khan
Nam June Paik, The Rehabilitation of Genghis-Khan
Dimensions / 217x110x211cm
Medium / TV monitor, 10TV cases, diving helmet, neon tube, bicycle, fuel dispenser, plastic pipes, clothes, 1-channel video, color, silent
The Rehabilitation of Genghis-Khan is a robot sculpture produced on the occasion of the Venice Biennale 1993, materializing the concept of the garden of German Pavilion becoming a new Silk Road that connects the East and the West and the fact that the historical highway has been substituted with a broadband electronic highway. This Genghis-Khan of the 20th century is riding a bike instead of a horse, wearing a diving helmet. His body is made of a fuel dispenser made of steel and his arms plastic pipes. The back of his bike is loaded with television cases, which are filled by symbols and characters made by neon lights. The neon symbols suggest a possibility of condensed delivery of complicated information through an electronic highway. The video displayed on the screens present a series of images that morph themselves, i.e. from a bottle to a pyramid and from a ceramic bowl to a kettle, while abstract geometrical patterns are alternating. In his robot sculptures such as Marco Polo, Alexander the Great and Tangun as a Scythian King, Nam June Paik emphasizes the coming of an age with a new paradigm that is realized with the help of software development through broadband communication, which is a step forward from the old age when power and domination were achieved by means of transportation and movement.
Medium / TV monitor, 10TV cases, diving helmet, neon tube, bicycle, fuel dispenser, plastic pipes, clothes, 1-channel video, color, silent
The Rehabilitation of Genghis-Khan is a robot sculpture produced on the occasion of the Venice Biennale 1993, materializing the concept of the garden of German Pavilion becoming a new Silk Road that connects the East and the West and the fact that the historical highway has been substituted with a broadband electronic highway. This Genghis-Khan of the 20th century is riding a bike instead of a horse, wearing a diving helmet. His body is made of a fuel dispenser made of steel and his arms plastic pipes. The back of his bike is loaded with television cases, which are filled by symbols and characters made by neon lights. The neon symbols suggest a possibility of condensed delivery of complicated information through an electronic highway. The video displayed on the screens present a series of images that morph themselves, i.e. from a bottle to a pyramid and from a ceramic bowl to a kettle, while abstract geometrical patterns are alternating. In his robot sculptures such as Marco Polo, Alexander the Great and Tangun as a Scythian King, Nam June Paik emphasizes the coming of an age with a new paradigm that is realized with the help of software development through broadband communication, which is a step forward from the old age when power and domination were achieved by means of transportation and movement.
