Vašulka Mediascape

Vašulkas’ ongoing commitments to archiving

“After creating their website vasulka.org, they used it to publish all the programs, posters, photographs interviews, texts, or short documentary audio recordings associated with their work (particularly with the early history of the New York new media theater The Kitchen) that they had collected until that time. All these materials were made available with little consideration for copyright … Today, this broad range of materials documents the Vašulkas’ exploration of the medium and shows the broader context of the emerging electronic avant-garde … Altogether there are more than 27,000 documents from more than 200 people … . In addition to text-based materials, the archive also includes short videos documenting work with audio and video tools and documentation relating to installations in the form of diagrams, plans, and hardware/software specifications. From 2000 until a few years ago, physical archival materials were kept at the Daniel Langlois Foundation in Montreal, after which they were moved to the National Gallery of Iceland. Today, the Vašulkas’ legacy and their archives are looked after by Iceland’s Vašulka Chamber, established … in 2014, and by the Czech Republic’s Vašulka Kitchen Brno, which was opened in 2016 with the goal of, among other things, processing the Vašulkas’ extensive archive.”

Lenka Dolanova, A Dialogue with the Demons of the Tools: Steina and Woody Vašulka, Vašulka Kitchen Brno (2021).