Dernissage and discussion
Sums & Differences

On the occasion of the closing of the exhibition Sums & Differences on Sunday 3 March 2024, we cordially invite you to a moderated discussion with Veronika Bromová, Richard Fajnor, Jana Francová, Jennifer Helia DeFelice, Lenka Kočišová and Monika Szűcsová. The topic of discussion will be early video art in the work of Gary Hill, Steina and Woody Vasulka and reflections on the development of artistic language in new media. The event will take place at the House of Art on Malinovsky Square from 2 to 5 pm.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The Sums & Differences exhibition features works by Gary Hill and Steina and Woody Vasulka. The selection of works highlights the mutually revelatory relationship between image and sound. The exhibition aims to outline the commonalities of their early explorations and subsequent divergence of artistic practices, their conceptual, performative and contemplative interpretations of the physical and the immaterial, in three unique trajectories reflecting their different sensibilities and original syntax. This collaborative project offers a new, albeit reductive, path through the artists' large-scale work. The spectrum of work in the exhibition represents a range of works from early exploratory works with electronic data processing tools documenting real-time machine interactions, performance, and use to expand the senses, to works reflecting the evolution of each artist's artistic language and the way in which artists use, explore, or break with algorithms through their experiential research. The exhibition will feature new works by Gary Hill as well as Steina's latest installation, Pergament. This unexpected new constellation will also feature several rarely shown film works by Woody Vasulka.

The Vasulka's first met at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, when Woody was studying documentary at FAMU in Prague and Steina was studying violin at the Academy of Performing Arts. In 1965 they went to New York together, where they documented the independent art scene and worked on their own work. In 1971, together with artist Andy Mannick, they founded The Kitchen, a cultural facility that initially provided a space for artists working with video, but over time transformed into a multi-genre center including dance, literature and music. Gary Hill represents the second generation of pioneers in the art of the electronic image, whose early careers were helped by New York's The Kitchen. The Vasulkas later chose him as their successor at the Center for Media Studies in Buffalo (at the State University of New York).

The exhibition was created through a collaboration between the House of Arts, Vasulka Kitchen Brno and the LÁ Art Museum in Iceland, where it was first presented to the public in 2022. The Brno version offers some additions compared to the Icelandic one, such as Steina's installation Borealis. The installation has been presented once before at the House of Arts (as part of the Hi Tech/Art exhibition, 1996), in the same space in which it's placed now.