VAULT: Conserving Nam June Paik’s ‘Fin de Siècle II,’ 1989
Whitney Museum of American Art
12.23.2018“This is not a normal conservation project, in the sense of dusting things off, or re-finishing surfaces, or anything like that. It was really much more of a detective story.” —Richard Bloes, Senior Technician, Whitney Museum
Nam June Paik first created his enormous, iconic work Fin de Siècle II in 1989 for an exhibition at the Whitney Museum. In preparation for the exhibition Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965-2018 (through April 14, 2019), the decision was made to resurrect the piece, after it had sat in storage for many years, many parts non-working or unworkable. This video explores not just the technical process of restoring the work, but the philosophical questions that underlay the challenge of how to restore a technological work of art such as this.