The Nam June Paik Art Center opened with a Nam June Paik Festival on October 8, 2008, after a long period of preparation.

Construction began on the Nam June Paik Art Center, which is located at 85 Sanggal-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin City, on August 29 of 2006, and was completed on April 30, 2008. The design of the Center was based on “The Matrix” by Kirsten Schmel, a German architect, and was selected through the 2003 International Design Contest, with architect Marina Stankovic also contributing to the final design for the building.

The basic plan for the construction of the Center was established in consultation with the artist Nam June Paik himself in November of 2001, and after more than seven years of preparation and construction, the Center is finally open to the public.

Moving away from the traditional concept of a media-centered art gallery specialized in video and media arts, the Center aims to serve as a mediated space that neither imposes hierarchies nor discriminates between traditional and modern things or among ethnic groups, races, classes, countries, genders, and cultures, and which operates with a spirit of volunteerism, creativity, and innovation.

The idea of a ‘mediated’ space refers to an experimental space that refuses to have a uniform narrative, standing for alterity at the global level. It also implies a dynamic station that enables active exchanges between domestic and international arts, internal and external arts, and the arts and society.

The Center will grow into an international art center that expands education and experimental convergence between arts, technology, and human science into the society, and that facilitates social interventions and connections through diverse approaches.

* Korea’s First Foreign Art & Culture Research Director Is Appointed
On March 1st, 2008, Professor Lee Yeong-cheol of Kaywon School of Art & Design was appointed the 1st Curator of the Nam June Paik Art Center. By firmly establishing the vision, identity, and direction of the Center, he has laid the foundation for the Center to grow into an international art center.

Notably, as part of the implementation of the vision, identity, and direction of the Center, talented foreign curators were recruited to improve the quality of HR and the system of the Center, and to build the Center into a truly international art center.

On September 1, 2008, the Center appointed Tobias Berger, a German curator and the former director of Para/site (Hong Kong), art & culture research director of the Center as part of its efforts to attract more foreign talents.

This marks the first time that a foreigner has been appointed as an art & culture research director at a publicly funded art gallery in Korea. Berger majored in art history and economics at Ruhr University (Bochum, Germany), and completed the Amsterdam de Appel Curator Program. He previously served as a director of Art Space (Auckland, New Zealand), and as an art director for the 2002 Lithuania Baltic International Art Triennial.

As a world-renowned curator with a high interest in Asian art and artists, he also participated in the planning of the 2005 Guangzhou Triennial, as well as the 2006 Busan Biennial.

In addition to Tobias Berger, a Portuguese curator Claudia Pestana has been serving at the Center since July 2008. Claudia Pestana majored in philosophy and aesthetics at Autonomous University of Lisbon, and in Modern Art Curation at the Royal Academy of Art. She has been recognized as a world-renowned curator through her work at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation: Modern Art Centre in Portugal, and on the Education Team for 2007 Kassel Documenta.

Pestana will take charge of a wide range of curatorial programs, including exhibition planning and international PR at the Center.

With the appointment of two renowned foreign curators, the Center has laid the foundation for its emergence as an international art center. In addition, there are plans for the Center to operate a curator fellowship and residence program.

The Center will serve as the hub of research on media arts and Nam June Paik, and as a birthplace for global curators in Korea, through partnerships with international art organizations.