Press release
“Steina: Playback” is the first major retrospective in Germany of Steina (b. 1940, Reykjavík, Iceland), a trailblazer of video and media art. A classically trained violinist, Steina turned to video in the late 1960s and approached the medium with musical sensitivity. Spanning from early documentary experiments to expansive multichannel installations, the exhibition traces Steina’s lifelong pursuit of what she calls “machine vision”: a playful, non-anthropocentric perspective that stretches perception beyond the human.
This exhibition is organised by the MIT List Visual Arts Center in collaboration with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. It is co-curated by Natalie Bell, MIT List Visual Arts Center, and Helga Christoffersen, Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Coordinating curators for the Haus der Kunst edition of the exhibition are Lydia Antoniou and Marlene Mützel.
Duration
12.6.–7.12.26
Downloads
Image Sheet (DE | EN)
Steina's biography (DE)
Steina's biography (EN)
Credit
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Steina and Woody Vasulka, Matrix I, 1970–72. Purchased jointly by The Museum of Modern Art, New York (The Jill and Peter Kraus Media and Performance Acquisition Fund); Tate, London, with funds provided by Tate Americas Foundation; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (Accessions Committee Fund purchase); and Pamela and Richard Kramlich and the New Art Trust, 2020. Installation view: Steina: Playback, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2024. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Credit
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Steina, The West, 1983. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase, gift of Mimi and Peter Haas, Susan and Robert Green, Mr. and Mrs. Brooks Walker Jr., and Thomas Weisel.
Installation view: Steina: Playback, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2024. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Credit
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Steina, Borealis, 1993.
Installation view: Steina: Playback, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2024. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Credit
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Steina, Borealis, 1993.
Installation view: Steina: Playback, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2024. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Credit
Steina
Violin Power, 1970–78 (still).
Single-channel video, with sound; 9:46 min.
Courtesy the artist and BERG Contemporary, Reykjavík
Credit
Steina
Somersault, 1982 (still)
¾” U-matic video, color, sound, 5:15 min.
Courtesy of the Artist and BERG Contemporary
Credit
Steina and Woody Vasulka
Noisefields, 1974 (still)
Single-channel video, color, sound; 7:07min.
Courtesy the artist and BERG Contemporary, Reykjavík
Credit
Steina and Woody Vasulka
Telč, 1974 (still)
Single-channel video, color, sound; 5:15min.
Courtesy the artist and BERG Contemporary, Reykjavík
Credit
Steina in her studio in New York, 1975
Photo: Kevin Noble
Courtesy the Vasulka Archive
Credit
Steina
Photo: Friðgeir Helgason
