Nam June Paik Art Center to be led by new director Park Nam

The Nam June Paik Art Center in Gyeonggi Province -- the only museum in the world dedicated to the video art pioneer Nam June-paik -- will be helmed by its newly appointed director, Park Nam-hee, for the next two years.

Park was appointed to the position and began work in her role as of Tuesday, according to the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation. The position allows for consecutive terms.

“I will do all my best to globally promote the Nam June Paik Art Center, a place the artist himself named as ‘the house where the spirit of Paik Nam-june lives on.’ Paik was such a great artist who should not be forgotten in Korean contemporary art history,” Park said.

Park led the third edition of the Jeju Biennale that ran through February, which took place under the theme of “Flowing Moon, Embracing Land.” She was also co-artistic director of the Cheongju Craft Biennale in 2013, which followed her position as chief curator of the biennale in 2011. She earned a doctoral degree in art criticism at Hongik University in Seoul.

Park succeeds former director Kim Seong-eun, who led the museum since 2019. The museum opened in 2008 after the death of Paik, a prestigious artist who founded the video art genre after studying in Japan and Germany.

The Nam June Paik Art Center is located in Yongin City, Gyeonggi Province, on a street named after the artist -- Paiknamjune-ro. The museum is reminiscent of a grand piano, an instrument Paik loved as a music major in college. The building was designed by two German architects, Kirsten Schemel and Marina Stankovic.