Nam June Paik made The Aachen Poster for the Fluxus event held at RWTH Aachen on July 20th, 1964. At that time, Paik stayed in Japan to study color television, so he could not participate in the event. The long title, Actions/Agit Pop/Dé-CollAge Happening/Events/Anti Art/L’Autrisme/Art Total/Refluxus, traverses the poster. Above and below the title are sentences in English, German, Korean, and Japanese, all translating to “I respect the monkey” in Paik’s handwriting. The date when the event happened was Paik’s birthday, and it was also the 20th anniversary of the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. In the poster, Paik collaged Fluxus scores with different articles and illustrations alluding to issues of dictatorship and violence, such as the Algerian War as well as the brutal torture of the Japanese Samurai. In addition to his signature, Paik added “Aachen” in red and “Karl der große(Charlemagne)” in red and blue.
