General

The Vasulka Chamber Center for New Media Art is a research center within the National Gallery of Iceland, dedicated to the study, collection, and display of video, digital, audio, and multimedia art in Iceland.

In cooperation with the Vasulka Kitchen Brno and the Vasulka Foundation Vasulka.org, the Vasulka Chamber maintains research materials relating to the life and work of Steina and Woody, including the archive, works of art in the collection, and a reference library.

The Vasulka Chamber is located in the study room of museum's library located at Laufásvegur 12, in Reykjavík. Access is by appointment, by writing to:

elin.gudjonsdottir@listasafn.is

A primary focus of the Vasulka Chamber is to preserve the legacy of Steina and Woody Vasulka, who donated a large part of their archive to the museum in 2014.

The Vasulka Chamber / Center for New Media Art (Vasulka-stofa) was founded in October 2014, in a unique partnership between the National Gallery of Iceland and the artists Steina and Woody Vasulka. The Vasulka Chamber was named in honor of the artists, who donated a substantial part of their archive to the museum (Steina added the word chamber (stofa) to the name). The initiative was spear headed by Halldór Björn Runólfsson, then museum director, and Kristín Scheving, then head of the Vasulka Chamber. The opening was timed to coincide with the 130th anniversary of the museum’s founding, and the event was presided over by Iceland's President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and Culture Minister Illugi Gunnarson. 

Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir, PhD, is a Professor of Art History, Art Theory, and Curatorial Studies at the University of Iceland. Her research focuses on historiography, contemporary art, the history and theory of photography, visual culture, and curatorial studies. She has published extensively on these topics.

Throughout her career, she has curated numerous exhibitions in Icelandic and European museums and galleries. Notable venues and festivals include Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, National Museum of Iceland, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík Museum of Photography, the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art in Vaasa, Finland, Reykjavík Arts Festival, Curated by_ in Vienna, Austria, and Riga European Capital of Culture.

She has collaborated with artists such as Ange Leccia, Snæbjörnsdóttir & Wilson, The Icelandic Love Corporation, Ieva Epnere, Sigurður Guðjónsson, and Ólöf Nordal. Most recently, she co-curated "Søsterskap," an exhibition highlighting women's strong role in the Nordic countries, at Les Rencontres d'Arles 2023. Additionally, she served as the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation Visiting Lecturer at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis in 2022.

Jennifer Helia DeFelice, PhD, is an artist, educator, and curator specializing in the field of art and technology who has long asserted her valuable artistic sensibility in pedagogical and curatorial practice and in co-creating the concepts of artistic events and institutions. She is a founder of Vašulka Kitchen Brno — Center for New Media Art, a legacy project and cultural platform devoted to electronic art pioneers Woody & Steina Vasulka. Her artistic and professional practice focuses on considerations of tacit knowledge acquisition through the documentation of presence and experience inspired by the history and trajectory of video, multimedia and performace art.  

Larisa Dryansky, PhD, is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History at Sorbonne Université. Her research focuses on the intersections of art, science, and technology in postwar and contemporary art, and on technical images (photography, film, video). She is currently completing a book on materiality in postwar and contemporary art, which includes a chapter on the Vasulkas. In addition to her first book, Cartophotographies: De l’art conceptuel au Land Art(2017), she has co-edited several volumes, including recently Repenser le médium: Art contemporain et cinéma (2022), and has published internationally in academic journals, edited volumes, and exhibition catalogs. From 2014 to 2016, she was Senior Fellow (“Conseillère scientifique”) in charge of contemporary art history programs at the French National Art History Institute (INHA).