ABOUT

Welcome to Marcia Vaitsman’s laboratory (farm? garden? kitchen?) of ideas, texts, images and sounds.

Francine Goudel, PhD, kindly took time, energy and interest to dive into this subtle practice of thinking-making-knowing-articulating:

Palette of reduced colors, vast silent landscapes, the use of media devices as support, games and playing, the movement through landscapes, the construction of memory and the condition of human subjectivity under discussion are some of the keys to Vaitsman’s work”.

[from Islands, Rivers, Airports and Ghosts: Marcia Vaitsman’s Meta-Journey.]

 

portrait2020-08-14 Pick your battles, 2020.

 

WhatsApp Image 2019-04-05 at 16.10.17On the making of The Octopus in the Parking Garage.

 

z_working-BRY_MV shootingMarcia Vaitsman working. Photo by Seana Reilly, 2013.

 

WORK SAMPLES

The Octopus in the Parking Garage
two-channel video, Germany, 2021.

Heisenberg Boulevard
video installation, in progress.

The Game for the Lovers of Truth
[O Jogo dos Amantes da Verdade]
board game, in progress.

Game of Six Senses
participatory activity during isolation, UK, 2020.

100 Seconds to Midnight
video, UK, 2020.

Between-Lines
board game, Germany, 2019.

The Game Show
group exhibition project, United States, 2018.

10 Delírios em 10 Sutras
video, India, 2017.

Casinha #3
project about hospitality, Brazil, 2016.

Jogo das Ilhas, Rios, Aeroportos e Fantasmas
board game, United States, 2016.

Ensaio das Ilhas, Rios, Aeroportos e Fantasmas
book of maps, United States, 2016.

10 Days of Isolation
video installation, Portugal/United States, 2015.

Small Acts of Kindness
photographic series, United States, 2015.

Text
video, silent.
with Michael David Murphy and Jonathan Bouknight, United States, 2014.

Park#1
installation for Sumptuary exhibition, United States, 2014.

Impossible Bodies
video and photographic series, United States, 2000-2016.

MediaScan: Giant Waves
photographic series, United States, 2013.

Impermanence
video, United States, 2012.

Study of Strange Things
(MFA Thesis)
video and photographic series, United States, 2011.

Study of Darkness
video, Brazil, 2009.

Expedição Francisco
public space intervention, Brazil, 2008-09.

Whiteness of an Exotic Place
video, Finland, 2006.

Janken
endless video, Germany, 2006.

Tokyo Girl
Comic booklet with Candyland Comics
and Büro für Brauchbarkeit, Brazil/Germany, 2005.

The Elephant Cage
video, Japan/Germany, 2005.

The One Made of Light Stuff
DVD-ROM, installation with touch screen monitor, Japan, 2004.

MediaScan
photographic series, Germany, 2003.

Mpolis
interactive video installation, Germany, 2001.

A Common Ancestral Stranger
DVD-ROM, Germany, 2000.

Biografias ñ Autorizadas
interactive narrative on CD-ROM and flop-disks, Brazil, 1995.

ARTICLES

por Vaitsman | by Vaitsman

Corpos à Deriva e a Desorientação como Potência.
Drifting Bodies and Disorientation as Potency.

On page 200.
Consider Madness as someone or something that “seeks to dissolve” in the face of normativity. What is “normal” in the post-fact era? This reflection presents the vigorous body as a beacon, using concepts such as Conatus, vigor and autonomy, and, as a precedent, the work on the threshold of psychotherapy and art by Lygia Clark. This text also presents the reasoning of complacent bodies, the first artificial, opposed to madness, but as a reactionary agent that reinforces the normativity of the capitalist culture; as an example, the works from the exhibition AI: More than Human, about the intelligence of machines. The second complacent body, a biological one, under the obscurantism of anti-intellectualism, fake news, ignorance by design used by the far right, as an announcement of the human mind decay in necrocapitalism. The question is if there is a resistance in the arts, which actively does not serve internalized aspects of capitalism, radically free from opportunism, made by resilient bodies, facing the new problems of humanity’s survival. How are these dissident bodies, adrift, in the extraordinary ruptures of the beginning of the 21st century?

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Na página 200.
Considere Loucura como alguém ou algo que “procura se desfazer” diante de uma normatividade. O que é “normal” na era da pós-verdade? Esta reflexão apresenta o corpo vigoroso como orientação, usando conceitos como Conatus, potência e autonomia, e, como precedente, a obra no limiar entre psicoterapia e arte de Lygia Clark. Observa a racionalidade de corpos complacentes, o primeiro artificial, opositor à loucura, mas como agente reacionária que reforça a normatividade da cultura capitalista, usa-se o exemplo de obras da exposição AI: More than Human, sobre inteligência da máquina. O segundo corpo complacente, o biológico, sob o obscurantismo do anti-intelectualismo, fake news, ignorância programada por design, da ultradireita, como anúncio da decadência da mente humana no necrocapitalismo. Questiona-se então se há uma resistência na arte, que ativamente não sirva a aspectos interiorizados do capitalismo, radicalmente livres de oportunismo; arte de corpos resilientes, encarando os novos problemas da sobrevivência da humanidade. Como são esses corpos dissidentes, à deriva, nas extraordinárias rupturas do começo do século XXI?

Interview – Entrevista | Futureless.

Curated by the Australian artist Oliver Dougherty, at Berlin’s SomoS Art House: from the political roots, queer-feminist identities, ideas and actions offer various perspectives on how society should be constantly modeled and remodeled.

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Curadoria do artista e curador australiano Oliver Dougherty, na SomoS Art House, de Berlim: “Da raiz política, identidades, ideias e ações queer-feministas oferecem perspectivas várias de como a sociedade deve ser constantemente modelada e remodelada. [ENG, POR]

Interview – Entrevista | Rose Steinmetz: Ouvidor 63.

The artists’ collective Ouvidor 63, also known as Centro Cultural Ouvidor, is an occupied 13-store building in downtown São Paulo, functioning since 2014 as home and workspace to circa 120 artists. Rose Steinmetz, artist working in photography and video, participates and documents the artists actions since November 2016

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O coletivo de artistas Ouvidor 63 ocupa um prédio de 13 andares na capital de São Paulo, desde 2014, agora moradia e espaço de trabalho de 120 artistas. Rose Steinmetz, artista que trabalha com fotografia e vídeo, participa e documenta as ações das/os artistas do coletivo desde novembro de 2016. [ENG, POR]

Artists’ Lists Are Never Only Lists, Version 2.0.
Listas de Artistas Nunca são Somente Listas, Versão 2.0.

On page 308.
These are thoughts on the working process of contemporary artists and consequently the resulting artifacts that assume forms of lists. It includes references to auto-narratives and autobiographies of artists working with impressions of disorientation, impermanence and foreignness. Focusing on the making of lists, catalogs, archives and on the interest in alphabetical, numerical, cartographical organization, and thus also on the unclassifiable, on what cannot or has not been decoded, on disorientation, and on all that can fit into the category of “etcetera”.

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Na página 308.
Reflexão sobre trabalhos de artistas contemporâneas e suas obras, com caráter autonarrativo e autobiográfico, que contemplam a desorientação, a impermanência e a estrangeiridade. Focando na atividade de fazer listas, catalogação, organização, arquivos, e no interesse pelo alfabético, numérico, cartográfico e, por outro lado, no inclassificável, no que é cifrado, na desorientação, e no etecetera. [ENG, POR]

Cancela Bolsonaro!

Article for CartaCapital about actions of political activism in New York and Dallas #CancelBolsonaro, organized by the feminist and environmentalist movements to cancel the visit of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro to New York City. São Paulo, 03.06.2019. [POR]

The Game Show: exhibition as an experience of collectivity, consonance and becoming.
The Game Show: exposição como experiência de coletividade, consonância e devir.

Case study of The Game Show, produced by the artists collective ABC No Rio (in Exile), New York, 2018: experience of collectivity, negotiation of meanings and methods, and becoming. Collaboration between artists to transform the gallery of Bullet Space into a game to be played by the public. Published on ConvocArte #6: Ars Ludens, Lisbon, 2019 ||| Estudo de The Game Show, realizado pelo coletivo ABC No Rio (in Exile), Nova York, 2018: experiência de coletividade, negociação de significados e métodos, e de devir, a partir da colaboração de artistas para a criação de uma exposição de arte que transformou a galeria do Bullet Space em um jogo ativado pelo público. Publicada na ConvocArte #6: Ars Ludens, Lisboa, 2019. [POR, and soon also in ENG]

Via Láctea – Constelação da Serpente

Uma breve conversa com Marcio Harum, curador, sobre a exposição: Samico Between Worlds [Rumors of War in Times of Peace], na Dream Box, Nova York, 4 de fevereiro a 5 de março de 2017. [POR]

Ver Lonjuras

Sobre a obra de Isaura Pena, Ver Lonjuras, 2015. “Da obra finalizada criou-se o título, Ver Lonjuras. No título da obra criou-se uma unidade de medida de saudade, a que Isaura sente de sua casa no Brasil, de sua família: a lonjura”. [POR]

Heisenberg Boulevard

Published by the First Symposium Fusion between Arts and Cinema of Caminhos Film Festival (I SIMPÓSIO – A FUSÃO DAS ARTES NO CINEMA), Coimbra. Click here for full download of the original text in Portuguese, 2014-15. [POR]

Three Artists and Their Self-images

Outline for a presentation about self-image and self-portraits at the SPE Conference in Chicago, 2013. The text was reviewed by Edward Hall. I am trying to recover the images, I am confident I will find them soon. 2013. [ENG]

2003-1

por outras pessoas – by other writers

Francine Regis Goudel: Islands, Rivers, Airports and Ghosts: Marcia Vaitsman’s Meta-Journey.

“Palette of reduced colors, vast silent landscapes, the use of media devices as support, games and playing, the movement through landscapes, the construction of memory and the condition of human subjectivity under discussion are some of the keys to Vaitsman’s work”. [abstract in ENG, full text POR]

Marcio Harum: Deus Ex-Machina.

“A artista congelou o tempo das violentas imagens em movimento de maneira pacífica, desacelerando-as, neutralizando-as, com efeitos de linhas de luz da utilização de um scanner portátil. Marcia Vaitsman se interessa em suscitar como imagens coletivas criam fantasmaticamente a memória que teremos deste desastre natural no futuro, e de como estas imagens constroem a realidade sob uma lenta influência daquelas outras imagens da destruição, as oficiais, que podemos acessar pelos veículos de mídia”. [POR]

BIOGRAPHY

Marcia Vaitsman, PhD, born in Brazil, has a degree in media studies with specialization in radio and TV broadcast from Universidade de São Paulo. She was a student at the University of Vienna, Austria, in the Media Institute and German Language Institute, and has a post-gradual degree in Audiovisual Art from the prestigious KHM Kunsthochschule fuer Medien (Academy of Media Arts), Cologne, Germany. From 2000 to 2007, Marcia worked as a member of the artistic team and teaching staff at KHM. Vaitsman holds a PhD degree in Contemporary Art from Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal – a 4 year long research that resulted in a thesis, Images of Displacement, with 331 pages, a board game called Game of Islands, Rivers, Airports and Ghosts, a book of maps and a video called 10 Delírios em 10 Sutras. This research was hosted for six months at Parsons The New School in New York, where she was an invited scholar. Vaitsman also has a final degree in photography from SCAD, Atlanta, with the 2-year Frances Larkin McCommon fellowship.

Among a list of important group exhibitions, there are Nuit Blanche in Toronto, Videobrasil in São Paulo, International Video Art Biennial in Tel Aviv, Exquisite Exhibit at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Biennale for Digital Art in Paris. Some of the solo exhibitions are: Small Acts of Kindness at Whitespace in Atlanta, Marcia Vaitsman at Galeria Candido Portinari, Brazilian Embassy in Rome, The Whiteness of an Exotic Place at Galleria Huuto in Helsinki, and MediaScan: Giant Waves, Centro Cultural São Paulo.

Vaitsman has received several acknowledgements such as the Idea Capital Travel Grant, Atlanta and the Prize Mostra de Artistas no Exterior from the Biennial of Sao Paulo Foundation for a project presented at Nuit Blanche, in Toronto. She also received project grants from FUNARTE, Brazil; and twice from Prince Claus Fund, The Netherlands. She was granted a six-month artist in residence at IAMAS (Institute of Advanced Media Art and Science), Japan. Vaitsman also received a granted residence from UNESCO-Aschberg, France and the Helsinki International Arts Program (HIAP), to work at Kaapelitehdas, Finland. She was a resident at Hambidge, GA, with the Fulton County arts fellowship; also resident at SomoS in Berlin, De-Construkt in New York, GlogauAIR in Berlin, and granted residencies at Espaço Armazém in Florianópolis, and Doukan 7002 in Chicago. Vaitsman received the photography prize Projeto Cria de Casa from Espaço OPHICINA, São Paulo, and the EMMA (Electronic Multimedia Award), London. Vaitsman’s work has been nominated and invited to several video art festivals around the world and received honorable mention from Video Art Prize, Bremen Filmbüro, Germany.

Vaitsman is part of Coletivo Elza, a collective of women artists in Florianópolis, Brazil. In addition to art, and somehow related to the larger interest and the study of subjectivity, she is an instructor for traditional Indian Yoga, graduated from the New York branch of the KaivalyaDhama Institute from Lonavla, India. She is also a PADI certified advanced diver.

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CONTACT

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