Steina Vasulka

In collaboration with the Daniel Langlois Foundation, Studio XX presented on October 16, 2001 pionneer media artist, Steina Vasulka, whose work includes video, installations and public interactive performances.

Steina Vasulka is considered a pioneer in the field of media arts. It is with great pleasure that Studio XX announces that she will be at the Studio on Tuesday, October 16th at 5:30 PM to present her work. An informal exchange will follow. This special event is possible due to the presence of the Vasulkas (Woody and Steina) in Montreal for The International Festival New Cinema New Media. The fesitval is paying them a tribute and showcasing a retrospective of their work.

Her main practice involves creating video tapes and installations works. She has recently created interactive performances in public places, in which she plays a digitally adapted violin which moves video images broadcasted on large video screens.

Steina was born in Iceland in 1940 and is presently living in Santa Fé, New Mexico. In 1959, she received a scholarship from the Czechoslovak Ministry of Culture to attend the State Music Conservatory in Prague to study violin. Woody and Steina married in Prague in 1964 and since that time they have been closely collaborating on numerous projects. After moving to the United States in 1965 she worked in New York City as a freelance musician. She began working with video in 1969. In 1971 she co-founded The Kitchen, an Electronic Media Theater in New York, since then her various tapes and installations have been exhibited in USA, Europe and Asia.

She has received funding from various well known associations including the New York State Council for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, just to name a few. She has also receive prizes for her innovative work in video and in new media. In 1993 she co-curated with Woody the exhibition and catalogue, "Eigenwelt der Apparatewelt (Pioneers of Electronic Art)" for Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria.