The Video-Multimedia-Performance (VMP) archive project developed during 2024 at Vašulka Kitchen Brno presents a segment of the extensive body of work created throughout the existence of the VMP department established in 1993 during the founding of a new Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology (FaVU). The faculty would later expand to include dedicated studios to the mediums of Multimedia, Video, and Performance which saw the transformation of the studio from Video-Multimedia-Performance to an individual studio for each discipline. The studio dedicated solely to Performance — briefly Photo-Performance — was one of a handful of programs dedicated exclusively to performance art in Europe at the time.
Throughout the course of the studio's existence numerous works were developed as video and digital art works or as video documentation of performances and events. Initially working with the most professional equipment available at the time in the region, students developed analogue video tapes utilizing U-matic ¾ inch magnetic tape and two editing suites enabling rudimentary video effects. Through the efforts of Tomáš Ruller (who became the studio lead after the untimely death of Radek Pilař during the studios first semester of existence in 1993) an extensive network of artists and personalities important to the field would present their work to the students and generously allow their work to be included in what was then the Video-Multimedia-Performance studio's modest Media Archive. Important protagonists such as Woody and Steina Vašulka, Michael Bielický, Keiko Sei, Chris Hill, Miloš Vojtěchovský, Jaroslav Vančát, Petr Vrána, and others created access points to important research, audiovisual works and the latest technological approaches and software available to artists in what would later begin to be referred to as the field of New Media. The works created by students quickly moved from creation with professional, however outdated, video camera equipment and post-production in the U-matic editing suite to VHS, VHS-C, Hi8 and ultimately to complete digital creation and post-production.
Vašulka Kitchen Brno's focuses on representative works from the history of The Video-Multimedia-Performance department of Brno's Faculty of Fine Art which served as the foundation for the development of the Vašulka Kitchen Brno project. Throughout the course of its thirty year history, an extensive fund of significant art-works have been created, but have yet to be properly archived and preserved. The first phase of the research covers a selection of works from Performance Studio —from its establishment until it changed leadership and focus as the Performance Department in 2020. Previously a significant period of the department's history was captured, presented and preserved on a DVD set more than two decades ago and ten years ago through the Media Archive Presents project.
The Performance Studio offered a concise curriculum which was adhered to as closely or as loosely as students chose, each was rather encouraged to pursue their individual (or collective) themes throughout the course of their studies. The breadth of work represented in the archive is an engaging blend of audiovisual pieces that span almost three decades of artistic and cultural practice stemming from a unique sociopolitical transition period in the Czech Republic. The fund of work includes what are the earliest phases of several generations of artists exploring art and technology while also reflecting the development of their unique audiovisual syntaxes and the documentation of performative approaches to intimate and highly personal expressions and themes.
In the initial phase of the development of a dedicated archive to these works, particular titles have been chosen by head of studio Tomáš Ruller, primarily from the years 2000-2020 representing individual students and collectives formed during the studio's existence making available to the public a representative overview of diverse video works by both individuals and creative groups from the period of their activity providing a basis for further research and curatorial work.
Additionally, Jennifer Helia DeFelice, an assistant at the studio for the majority of its existence, has laid the groundwork for a knowledge base expanding the archive to include auxiliary information from the artists themselves such as biographical information, texts, interviews, and accompanying documentation.
photo (left): Helena Jiráková, Semester Presentation, Performance Studio, 2018
video (left): Helena Jiráková, Post FavU: Pre-Christmas Unrest, Aula Gallery, 2016
Curation and Coordination: Tomáš Ruller, Jennifer Helia DeFelice
Assistance: Mia Bružeňáková
Technical Support: Lloyd Dunn, Kryštof Pátra, Jiří Psota
Translation & Editing: Alena Všetečková
Artists represented in the archive:
Darina Alster, Sandrine Amadou Titi, Bover Art (Tomáš Hodboď & Michal Rampula), Jakub Bruch, David Čech, Štěpán Čížek, Nikol Čížek Uxová, Michaela Čížková, Monika Fryčová, Ema Harmady, Tomáš Hodbod', Petr Horák, Zuzana Janečková, Helena Jiráková (Helush Yiraq), Jan Jiříček, Aneta Jochimová, Barbora Kašubová, Pavla Kislerová, Klara Kleinerová, Lena Kočiš (Akkamiau), Matěj Kolář, Tomáš Kopčil, Lada Kopřivová, Tomáš Kouba, Anna Kretschmer, Dimitri Kruglov (Krug Filin), Michal Krysl, Světlana Kulišková, Tomáš Lorenc, Hana Magdoňová, Filip Martinek, Marketa Olšarová, Jakup Orel Tomáš, Jana Orlová, Martina Oškrdová, František Pavůček, Marie Polášková, Pavel Pražák, Michael Rampula, Jana Rémanová, Martina Růžičková, Andrei Shulha (Chepuchov), Eva Slížová, Jan Smutný, Dominik Strouhal Al-Jazairi, Sandra Svobodová, Jan Symon, Zuzana Štefková, Petronela Estrada Tančeková, Barbora Trnková, Dalibor Vybíral (Oliver Heller), František Walter, Jiři Waschka, White Market (Kleiner, Kisler, Yochim), Veronika Zajačíková, Jana Zimčíková