Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV
Curated by Denver Month of Video for the Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival
Tuesday, May 26 @ Center for Musical Arts
200 E Baseline Rd., Lafayette, CO 80026
FREE! with Registration – NOTE: registration is required for entry.
About the Film:
A chronicle of the life and times of Nam June Paik, a pillar of the American avant-garde in the 20th century, widely regarded as the father of video art, who coined the phrase “Electronic Superhighway,” and is arguably the most famous Korean artist in modern history.
A note from the curators:
Before the screen became the dominant language of modern life, Nam June Paik was already asking what it could say.
Denver Month of Video’s Jenna Maurice and Adán De La Garza selected this documentary portrait of Paik not just to celebrate one of electronic art’s great pioneers, but to set a tone for everything that follows in this festival. His work — chaotic, tender, funny, and visionary — reminds us that the tools that are so common to us now were once brand new, wide open, full of noise and possibility. He saw television not as a delivery mechanism but as a medium to be wrestled with, bent, and reimagined from the inside out.
Beginning the festival with Moon is the Oldest TV is an invitation to watch the whole fest a little differently — with curiosity, with openness, and with the same sense of wonder Paik never seemed to lose.
Curator Bios:
Jenna Maurice is a video, photo, and performance artist based in Denver, CO. Her work explores relationships—with herself, others, the past, and the landscape—through non-verbal communication and the complicated language of being human. She has degrees, has shown her work around the world, and could list the names—but dislikes when bios turn into a name-dropping contest. She believes that good art doesn’t have an expiration date and also finds writing in the third person kind of unsettling
Adán De La Garza is an artist, co-conspirator, curator/programmer, and recovering academic. Usually in that order, depending on what job he’s applying for. Adán was a co-conspirator of the media arts exhibition series Nothing To See Here (2013-2016), is the sole member of the anonymous video screening series Collective Misnomer (2016 – present), and smashes a lot of buttons putting on video game exhibitions with Dizzy Spell (2018 – present). Originally from Tucson Arizona, Adán is currently based in Denver, Colorado, where he hates writing in the third person.