“When I ponder what mysterious the encounter with other people holds for our insubstantial lives, I feel it is a terrible shame that great geniuses may pass their prime without ever meeting. And even when such encounters have actually taken place (for example, Cage and McLuhan; Cage and Buckminster Fuller), no camera has recorded the event. What a loss for the history of human civilization! .… Thanks to the satellite, the mysteries of encounters with others (chance meeting) will accumulate in geometric progression and should become the main nonmaterial product of post-industrial society.” Nam June Paik, Art & Satellite, 1984

Nam June Paik Art Center presents Rendez-vous Céleste from June to November at the Random Access Hall on the 1st floor. Rendez-vous Céleste focuses on the main characters of Good Morning Mr. Orwell (1984). Focusing on the mysterious and serendipitous encounters with others made possible by satellite, Nam June Paik brought together some of the biggest stars and artists of the day on January 1. In a satellite project that is thoroughly planned, but at the same time full of spontaneity and unpredictability, the artists experience the encounter of a lifetime. Five of them - Takehisa Kosugi (1938-2018), Charlotte Moorman (1933-1991), John Cage (1912-1992), Joseph Beuys (1921-1986), and Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) - were contemporaries and collaborators of Paik, and had appeared in his work several times before Good Morning Mr. Orwell. Rendez-vous Céleste explores the meaning of collaboration by focusing on source videos, documentaries, and clips of the five artists who worked with Paik before and after his satellite art.

The first screening of the series was the commemorative performance for the 6th Fukuoka Prize for Arts and Culture held in 1995. The performance Come, Go, Return: Return to Nature (歸去來) by Nam June Paik and Takehisa Kosugi embodies the meaning of letting go of everything and returning to the beginning. Paik and Kosugi, along with other performers, present Chamber Music and Music Expanded performances over the course of one hour.

Takehisa Kosugi, born in Tokyo in 1938, was an avant-garde musician and a long-time artistic comrade of Nam June Paik. He collaborated with artists such as John Cage and David Tudor and served as the music director for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for many years. He passed away from esophageal cancer in 2018. With a challenging attitude towards conventional music, Kosugi left a significant mark on avant-garde art activities centered in New York, Japanese experimental music, and sound art.