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.
Marcia Vaitsman 