Otto Piene

"Topless Cellist" Charlotte Moorman

Howard Weinberg, Nam June Paik

Charlie Morrow, Yōko Ono

Nam June Paik's first single-channel videotape since 1989 is a heartfelt tribute to his long-time collaborator Charlotte Moorman. This portrait traces Moorman's career as an avant-garde performer, from her classical training to her notorious arrest as the "Topless Cellist" and subsequent talk-show celebrity. Rare documentations of Moorman's performances include Otto Piene's Sky Kiss and Jim McWilliams' Chocolate Cello. Interviews with Moorman's friends, family and collaborators, such as Yoko Ono, Christo and Jeanne Claude, Otto Piene, and Barbara Moore, among others, provide intimate recollections of the inimitable Moorman.

Black Gate Cologne (Ein Lichtspiel)

Otto Piene, Aldo Tambellini

Often cited as the first television program made by artists, "Black Gate Cologne" is a live event involving films, light objects and the participation of the studio audience, comprised of footage from two consecutive 45-minute broadcasts with different audiences filmed at the WDR "Electronic Studio' in Cologne, Germany.

The Medium Is the Medium

Otto Piene, Allan Kaprow

Produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, the Medium Is the Medium is one of the earliest and most prescient examples of the collaboration between public television and the emerging field of video art in the U.S. WGBH commissioned artists — Allan Kaprow, Nam June Paik, Otto Piene, James Seawright, Thomas Tadlock and Aldo Tambellini — to create original works for broadcast television. Their works explored the parameters of the new medium, from image processing and interactivity to video dance and sculpture.