On Collecting Time

Nam June Paik Art Center is a single-artist museum; but it is also a museum for “artists.” A terrain of Paik’s verve, it has always been joined by our contemporary artists, making it more lively, transforming it to the extent that its horizons could be broadened. Due to the vitality imbued by the artists, Nam June Paik Art Center does not remain Paik’s memorial, but keeps being a very contemporary media art museum. As well as exhibiting contemporary artists, it sets out now to “collect” them. To the collections centered on Paik, nine artists have been added in recent years. Their works open a new prospect in terms of art and technology, and lead you to believe that art is something to help reflect on society. At the same time, they are posing significant challenges to the museum. With the artists in the collections, there are elusive temporal trajectories from the past to the present, or the other way round; with their works of media art, there are machine time and human time constantly intertwined. On Collecting Time is an exhibition of our new acquisitions, and is also a lyrical composition about time, moving and even dancing. Nam June Paik Art Center requests the pleasure of your company at the exhibition’s opening.

Kim Seong Eun
Director, Nam June Paik Art Center