“In February 2008, five artists and artist groups from all over the world were nominated in Cologne by an international group of experts for the fourth International Nam June Paik Award donated by the Kunststiftung NRW (Arts Foundation North-Rhine Westphalia), Düsseldorf. The works selected for the award will be exhibited in the permanent collection of traditional European fine art in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud in Cologne from 26th of September until 16th of November 2008. On October 16, 2008, the prize will be awarded by the president of the Kunststiftung NRW, Dr. Fritz Schaumann.

In 2002, the late world artist Nam June Paik lent his name together with a drawing to this most important award for media art in Germany. The drawing, which reads: „Paik NRW okay“, commemorates Paik’s 19-year activity in this German federal state – particularly in the two cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf – of which he spent more than 10 years as a professor at the Düsseldorf Academy of arts.  1963, the year the „Exhibition of Music“ was held in the Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal, is considered the year of birth of media art. With this award, the Kunststiftung NRW intends to revive the enormous creative energies which are active until this day within the works of this global artist, and to encourage a young generation of artists to break new innovative ground. The award includes an exhibition of the nominated, during which the first prize amounting to 25,000 euros will be awarded as well as a junior prize for an artist from North-Rhine Westphalia for finishing a project amounting to 15,000 euros.

The nominating experts met on the spot in Cologne at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum & Fondation Corbout, with its extraordinary collection from medieval art to impressionism: Solange Farkas, Videobrasil and MAM-Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (Sao Paulo/Salvador de Bahia), Yukiko Shikata, NTT InterCommunication Center ICC (Tokio), Walid Raad, artist, (New York/Beirut), Miklos Peternak, C3 Center for Culture & Communication (Budapest) and Udo Kittelmann, Museum of Modern Art (Frankfurt/Main).

They selected the following artists and artist groups for the award:
The Speculative Archive / Julia Meltzer and David Thorne (Damaskus/Los Angeles); Biopresence / Shiho Fukuhara and Georg Tremmel (Tokyo/London); Attila Csörgo (Budapest); Tatiana Blass (São Paulo) and GIA Grupo de Interferência Ambiental from Salvador de Bahía”

Thanks to Marcus Baston and e-flux