In collaboration with the Korean Film Archive (KOFA), the Nam June Paik Art Center will present the special screening Nam June Paik: A Video Cosmos in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Nam June Paik’s passing. The program will take place over three days, from September 17 to 19, at Cinematheque KOFA. Organized in conjunction with the 1st Nam June Paik Media Art Festival, the screening traces the evolution and expansion of Paik’s video practice. The first day offers an overview of his life and artistic world, introducing his early works that move from music and performance to film and video. The second day focuses on the experimental production environment of American public television, highlighting how Paik combined video, broadcasting, and performance to develop a new visual language. The final day spotlights his “satellite trilogy,” exploring Paik’s vision of global communication and planetary networks. Through this trajectory—from early experiments to broadcast and satellite projects—the program reveals Paik’s understanding of video as a medium for connecting people and cultures.

Marking the 20th anniversary of Nam June Paik’s passing, this collaboration between the Nam June Paik Art Center and KOFA is meaningful in that it introduces Paik’s moving-image works beyond the contexts of museum exhibitions and archives, situating them within the broader histories of film, broadcasting, and visual culture. By bringing together the Art Center’s accumulated research and interpretation of Paik’s work with KOFA’s expertise in film exhibition, the program offers audiences a wider perspective on Paik’s practice across television, video, and broadcasting. In particular, this special screening expands the experience of encountering Paik’s video works—from monitors, installations, and archival displays in the museum to the large screen and shared viewing environment of a cinematheque. By focusing on works that unfold over time and by sharing the same screen and duration with fellow viewers, audiences are invited to reconsider Paik’s enduring idea of “watching together” and being connected through television and broadcast media.

Nam June Paik and Jud Yalkut, Cinéma Metaphysique: Nos. 2, 3 and 4, 1967

Nam June Paik with Charlotte Moorman, Guadalcanal Requiem, 1977/1979

Nam June Paik, Merce by Merce by Paik, 1978

Nam June Paik, Nam June Paik: Editing for Television, 1975