In conjunction with the exhibition Play It Again, Paik, Nam June Paik Art Center presents Random Access Hall screenings. The exhibition is an exhibition that showcases interview footage of Nam June Paik from the video archive of the Nam June Paik Art center alongside his artworks. In the Random Access Hall, you can watch the original video of the interviews featured in the exhibition.

The second screening program features the documentary film Play It Again, Nam directed by Jean-Paul Fargier. Play It Again, Nam is a short film co-produced by Canal+ and the Centre Pompidou, and carries the subtitle A Portrait of Nam June Paik. Also used as the English title of the exhibition, the documentary begins with Paik’s 1990 performance A Pas de Loup (With the Steps of the Wolf). This performance was conceived as a shamanistic ritual in memory of his artistic comrade Joseph Beuys, with Paik himself performing as a shaman guiding the deceased to the afterlife through a traditional Korean ogu-gut ritual. The film, which begins with the performance, briefly introduces Paik’s childhood, his encounters with fellow Fluxus artists, his relationship with John Cage, and performance episodes with Charlotte Moorman. It then returns to the present, showing Paik working in his Cincinnati studio in the U.S., performing on the streets of Jongno, Seoul, and re-enacting Zen for walking in New York. Paik also introduces some of his early works, including Magnet TV, which is part of the Nam June Paik Art Center’s collection. Mars and Venus, which are part of the same planetary series as Uranus, currently on view, also appear in the film. The documentary captures Paik both presenting and re-performing his works, and several of the interview clips in the film are excerpts from the artworks currently on view in this exhibition. Although not included in this exhibition, the film presents one of Paik’s most meaningful remarks, which we invite you to reflect on during this special screening:

“All the electronics industry is made from one obsession: how to make something exactly copy original. So in my case I never shoot camera and I never had a movie, you know, for me reproduction of reality means nothing, never, you know. I always change music signals. The video synthesizer was originally created to alter signals.”