The Brno House of Arts hosted two renowned pioneers of new media art, husband and wife duo Woody (born in Brno) and Steina Vašulka (born in Reykjavik), for the grand opening of “The Vašulka Kitchen” on Tuesday, October 30. Photo credit: Eda Yildiz.
Brno, Nov 5 (BD) – The Vašulkas are from the first generation of artists experimenting with video. They are famous for their structural, documentary video images, and tools for working with electronic images and sound. Their creative and prolific work consists of video-performances and spatial installations with audiovisual, optical and robotic components. It could be said that wherever the new technology is, the Vašulkas are there to take advantage of new developments in the name of creativity and knowledge.
The Vašulkas founded the first Kitchen in New York City in 1971. The place took its name from the original location, the kitchen of the Mercer Arts Center, which was the only available place for them to screen their video pieces. In the Kitchen’s opening manifesto, the Vašulkas wrote, “This place was selected by Media God to perform an experiment on you, to challenge your brain and its perception.”
The newly-opened Vašulka Kitchen of new media art in Brno explores the relationship between art and new technologies. The House of Arts features the Vašulkas’ archive and a permanent exhibition of selected works in two separate rooms. The Kitchen will play host to public lectures, conferences, festivals, exhibitions, and performances, with the aim of supporting the contemporary art scene.
The main purpose of The Kitchen is to digitize and archive the work of the Vašulkas and other artists in the fields of video art and new media art.
At the grand opening ceremony of the new media centre, a video projection entitled “Vašulka’s Wave” was shown on the House of Arts facade, and the 25-minute audiovisual performance “Bricolage” was presented.
If you are interested in the Vašulkas’ online archive, you can visit vasulka.org to discover more about their artistic work and digitized records. The archive includes photographs, exhibition catalogues, video excerpts, letters and more.
The Kitchen is open to visitors on Tuesdays and Thursdays, showing projections, exhibition catalogues, photographs and other artwork from 10AM to 4PM.
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