Nam June Paik's Taxidermic Television at Guggenheim Bilbao

A major exhibition of Nam June Paik's work was held at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao from May 22 to September 23, 2001. The show featured the artist's pioneering use of television sets as sculptural and performative objects, drawing parallels between his practice and taxidermy. Paik preserved obsolete TVs in a state of perpetual activity, treating them as skins that contain and reveal images. His works from the mid-1960s onward, such as TV Chair (1968), TV Cello (1971), TV Garden (1974), Candle TV (1975), Video Fish (1975), and Family of Robot (1986), transformed televisions into chairs, cellos, gardens, candle holders, aquariums, and robots. The exhibition highlighted how Paik prioritized seduction over technical understanding, constructing decors and frictions that turned the television into a character in a spectacle. However, the critic noted that his recent laser-based works lacked the razor's edge agility of his earlier pieces, with the spectacle becoming a vain loop. The review was written by Didier Arnaudet.