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For immediate release Public Art Fund presents? Nam June Paik at Rockefeller Center A new laser commission by artist Nam June Paik, Transmission, presented by Cingular Wireless, is on view with a monumental automobile sculpture at NYC landmark. On view June 26 - September 2, 2002 New York, NY- Beginning on June 26, visitors to Rockefeller Center will encounter two major works by internationally acclaimed artist Nam June Paik. Transmission, the artist's premiere outdoor laser presentation in New York City, will be seen alongside selections from the monumental 32 cars for the 20th century: play Mozart's Requiem quietly. Organized by Public Art Fund on behalf of RCPI Landmark Properties and Tishman Speyer Properties, owners of Rockefeller Center, this exhibition will offer millions of people an unprecedented opportunity to encounter the work of Nam June Paik, whose pioneering use of multimedia technology has changed the scope of contemporary art over the past four decades. Nam June Paik at Rockefeller Center is presented by Cingular Wireless. Nam June Paik's Transmission This ambitious new commission, made in collaboration with laser installation expert and creative technician Norman Ballard, is perfectly suited to the environment of Rockefeller Center, a major hub of the 20th/21st-century broadcast industry. From the outset of his career, Nam June Paik has sought "the new, imaginative and humanistic ways of using our technology" (1969). In his hands, the laser-which has been of interest to Paik since the late 1960s and has become the key element of his "post-video" work since the late 1990s-is more than a simple carrier of information. It is its own medium, carving visible lines and shapes into space, interacting with its physical surroundings. Here, the radio tower-a powerful tool and symbol of mass communication-sends direct visual information to passersby, rather than broadcasting an invisible volley of images, voices and sounds to far-flung locations. Nam June Paik's 32 cars for the 20th century: play Mozart's Requiem
quietly Upon drawing close to the cars, one can hear the sound of Mozart's Requiem, the composer's final, unfinished work. For Paik-who was the first to imagine the term "information superhighway" in a 1974 study for the Rockefeller Foundation, and whose formal training is in music composition-32 cars brings together several recurring themes in his career. His updated take on Mozart's Requiem is a clear-eyed, unsentimental ode to the 20th century, an era that saw the rise and crisis of both the car culture and the media culture. It is an elegiac commentary on the nature of consumer culture, technology and obsolescence. About Nam June Paik From his earliest pieces with Fluxus to his current work with laser expert Norman Ballard, artistic collaborations have marked Paik's career, including projects with Charlotte Moorman, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Allan Kaprow and, more recently, sound artist Stephen Vitiello. For more than twenty years, Paik and Ballard have worked together to explore and expand the possibilities of laser as an artistic medium. Transmission joins their extensive body of collaborative work, which includes Jacob's Ladder at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2000) and Baroque Laser in M?ster, Germany (1995). Paik has had mid-career retrospectives and major exhibitions at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2000); the Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (1991); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1982); and more than 60 other international venues. Born in Korea, Paik studied music composition at the University of Tokyo, where he wrote his thesis on Modernist composer Arnold Schoenberg. Nam June Paik at Rockefeller Center is presented by Cingular Wireless. Cingular Wireless, the second largest wireless carrier in the U.S., believes very strongly in self-expression and is proud to present the expressive works of Nam June Paik. Cingular will provide wireless service in the New York City market beginning this summer. Additional funding has been provided by TAC Americas. 32 cars for the 20th century: play Mozart's Requiem quietly is in the collection of Samsung Foundation of Culture. Exhibitions at Rockefeller Center Each day an estimated 250,000 people walk through the Rockefeller Center complex About Public Art Fund Public Art Fund is a non-profit arts organization supported by generous gifts from individuals, foundations, and corporations, and with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. # # # Contact:
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