It is with great honor that we invite you to the special exhibition to celebrate Nam June Paik’s 80th Anniversary. The opening ceremony of this special exhibition on 20 July 2012, Nam June Paik’s birthday, will mark the beginning of the various commemorative events that we organize, such as an international symposium, performances, special lectures, video screenings and education programs. They will provide an important opportunity to reevaluate Nam June Paik’s art and thought in light of its values for today.

For Paik, ‘nostalgia’ was not a mere yearning for the past. It was rather a practical act of ruminating on his dreams and passions for the future that had been impossible to realize in the past. Similarly, the exhibitionwishes to go beyond a conventional retrospective of the artist. Unfolding ‘the future of the past’ that Paik envisioned, we hope this exhibition will become a convivial feast of science, technology, philosophy, arts and culture all together.
Paik tried to incorporate the potential values of cybernetics, robotics and informatics for humans into art. His unusual view of the world was not that man and nature would devastate each other due to scientific technology, but that man, machine, and nature would be able to come together. We believe that all contemporary artists participating in this exhibition would also have a sense of community with a strong nostalgia for this world view of Paik’s.

To coincide with the exhibition opening, the refurbished lobby of the Nam June Paik Art Center will meet visitors, offering a space where one can take a rest and enjoy oneself. The exhibition spaces are also renovated to illuminate Paik’s major works that have been rarely seen in the public before. We expect the “House Where Nam June Paik Lives Long” will become a more familiar place to visitors. The support and encouragement of all of you who take part in Paik’s 80th anniversary events will generate a ‘feedback’ with a great resonance and help the precious seeds sewn by Paik grow to be creative fruits in this land.

MANU PARK / Director, Nam June Paik Art Center

© 2009 NJP Artcenter All Right Reserved.