Preserving Nam June Paik's Video Installations: the Importance of the Artist's Voice
Date: February 16, 2007
Time: 12:30 - 2:00
Location: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Bartos Lecture Hall
11 W 53rd Street
New York, New York
To take place in conjunction with the College Art Association s (CAA) 2007 annual meeting in New York.
The International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art - North America (INCCA-NA), together with the Museum of Modern Art and the American Institute of Conservation will present Preserving Nam June Paik's Video Installations: the Importance of the Artist's Voice, a panel discussion on the conservation of Paik's time-based media work.
Nam June Paik (1932 - 2006) was a South Korean-born American artist internationally recognized as a pioneer of video art and known for his active participation with curators in re-installing and technically
upgrading his works. His recent death has had a major impact on how his works will be viewed and installed in the future.
This panel will explore what happens when there is an absence of the artist's voice and will address two primary concerns: the loss of visual components as certain technologies become obsolete, and the loss of conceptual components when there is no definitive roadmap of the artist's intent to guide future curators. This event will feature presentations by a conservator, curator, and artist who have been closely involved with Paik's work with the goal of examining best practices for documenting and archiving time-based media. The featured panelists will bring a combined expertise and insight into Paik's working method to provide a unique opportunity to closely examine the roles an artist plays in the long-term
preservation of their work and the options available to contemporary conservators.
Presenters and their topics will include the following:
Rudolf Frieling, Curator of Media Arts at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, will present current research in video art conservation through the project 40yearsvideoart: Digital Heritage as it relates to the
work of Nam June Paik. Ulrich Lang, Chief Conservator at the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt,
Germany and Jochen Saueracker, Nam June Paik's assistant of twenty years, will discuss their case study of Paik's One Candle from the Inside Installations project. The panel will be moderated by Gwynne Ryan, Objects Conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, with Barbara London, Associate Curator of
MoMA's Media department, and Glenn Wharton, Research Scholar at the New York University Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, acting as discussants.
For more information on this event, please visit the conference part in the CAA website or contact Gwynne
Ryan, the INCCA NA , U.S. membership coordinator, GRyan@mfa.org
Please note that this is a free session, and registration for the CAA annual conference is not required to attend this panel discussion.