Nam June Paik Museum Launches

The government of Kyonggi Province and Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation kicked off the construction of the Nam June Paik Museum in Yong-in, south of Seoul, on Tuesday, aimed at commemorating the Korean-born late video artist Paik Nam-june.

Coinciding with the 100th day since the artistĄŻs death, the provincial government held a ground-breaking ceremony for the museum at the construction site, officially announcing the start of the 28.9 billion won ($31 million) project that is to be completed by next October. The museum will be established on more han 33,000 square meters of land, 5,100 square meters of which has been reserved for buildings.

Among the participants of the ceremony were Governor Sohn Hak-kyu of Kyonggi Province, Song Tae-ho, president of Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation and Kubota Shigeko, PaikĄŻs widow.

According to the government-run Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, the museum will feature 67 of Paik's works, three of his personal belongings and a video archive of his 2,285 studies.

The foundation purchased the artworks from Paik based on a memorandum of understanding with the artist in 2001 to build the museum.

The foundation is to also present a reproduction of his art studio from Thursday to June 10 at an exhibition under the title ``The Memory of Nam June Paik : The Memorabilia,ĄŻĄŻ at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul.

A hall at the museum has been decorated to reproduce his Brook Street Studio in New York, in which Paik had worked since the 1960s. The hall will be embroiled with a pile of television sets, sketches, instruments, helmets, photographs of his friends and posters on the wall, and shelves full of tangled wires. For more information on the exhibition call (031)231-8535.