[artinfo] National Gallery of Iceland: Opening of Vasulka Chamber

[e-flux]

National Gallery of Iceland

Opening of Vasulka Chamber  
16 October 2014

Symposium: 14-15 October

The National Gallery of Iceland
Fríkirkjuvegur 7
101 Reykjavík
Iceland
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm

T + 354 5159600
<mailto:vasulka-chamber at listasafn.is>vasulka-chamber at listasafn.is 

<http://interspire.e-flux.com/link.php?M=112867&N=10056&L=11711&F=H>www.listasafn.is
Vasulka Chamber
On the occasion of the 130th anniversary of The 
National Gallery of Iceland, and in collaboration 
with artists Steina and Woody Vasulka, we proudly 
launch Vasulka Chamber (Vasulka-stofa), 
department of video and media art in Iceland at 
the National Gallery of Iceland. 

Vasulka Chamber, initiated by The National 
Gallery of Iceland and VASULKA Inc., includes a 
part of the archive of the Vasulkas, oversees and 
facilitates further research on media art with 
the specific aim to preserve and mediate 
Icelandic art that relates to video, digital and 
multimedia art, just as the museum is devoted to 
the preservation of art of non-electronic 
mediums. An important part of this preservation 
process involves rescuing video works from 
damage, and preserving techniques and tools that 
have been replaced by different technology and 
devices. That is why another important task for 
the Vasulka Chamber is to digitize a great part 
of analogue multimedia works of Icelandic artists 
for future mediation.

As Icelandic citizens living in the US it is the 
sincere desire of the Vasulkas to keep a large 
part of their archive in Iceland. Vasulka Chamber 
is designed to be a hub for video, digital, audio 
and multimedia art in Iceland, with a primary 
focus on the video and media art of the Vasulkas.


Symposium 
In conjunction with the opening of Vasulka 
Chamber, The National Gallery of Iceland will 
host a two-day symposium. The first program is 
titled "Nordic Digital Conversation" and the 
second is titled "Steina and Woody Vasulka's 
Archives."  

Speakers:
Steina and Woody Vasulka; Hanna Maria Attila, 
Director of AV-Arkki, Helsinki; Don Foresta, 
research artist and theoretician in art; Dr. Jean 
Gagnon, Director of preservation and access to 
collections at the Cinémathèque Québécoise in 
Montreal, Québec, former Director of the Daniel 
Langlois Foundation; Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir, 
filmmaker; Anna-Karin Larsson, Director of 
Filmform, Stockholm;  Per Platou, Director and 
Ida Ghosh, Manager of Videokunstarkivet, Oslo; 
Dr. Halldór Björn Runólfsson, Director of The 
National Gallery of Iceland;  Kristín Scheving, 
Head of Vasulka Chamber; Gaby Wijers, Director of 
LIMA, Amsterdam; moderator: Kati Kivinen, curator 
at Kiasma Art Museum, Helsinki

About Steina & Woody Vasulka
Steina [Steinunn Briem Bjarnadóttir] (b. 1940) 
was born and raised in Reykjavik and studied 
violin in Prague in 1959-1965. There she met her 
husband to be, filmmaker Woody [Bohuslav Peter] 
Vasulka (b/ 1937). In 1964 they got married and 
Woody received citizenship in Iceland. A year 
later they moved to New York City,  where they 
soon became actively involved in the development 
of the global video revolution that was in the 
making. In 1971 they founded The Kitchen in 
Manhattan, the most renowned multimedia center in 
the world. In 1973 Steina and Woody left New York 
City and settled in Buffalo, where they worked as 
professors at SUNY University, the world's first 
university department of practical multimedia 
studies. In 1980 they moved to Santa Fe, New 
Mexico, where they have since lived and worked.  


Press contact:
Kristín Scheving
Head of Vasulka Chamber, National Gallery of Iceland
T +35 45159605 / 
<mailto:vasulka-chamber at listasafn.is>vasulka-chamber at listasafn.is