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Woody Vasulka The Brotherhood

November 1, 2024 – December 20, 2025

The complete work of The Brotherhood is an installation that originally consisted of six respective works. It had been developed over ten years when it was exhibited in its entirety for the first and only time in 1998, at the then-newly opened museum, NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC) in Tokyo. Additionally, it was the first major solo exhibition to open in the museum. The ICC took on the marvelous task of commissioning and shipping the installation from the United States to Japan and published an in-depth exhibition catalog, consisting of numerous scholarly insights into the exhibition and the importance of Woody Vasulka’s work, alongside interviews with the artist himself.

When organizing exhibitions and art-related events, one must ask themselves what relevance a certain piece of art might bring to the present. In 2015, when I first heard of The Brotherhood and Steina and Woody Vasulka described their longing to put the work together again to be exhibited in its entirety, I found it an important task for historical context. The content of this exhibition is therefore largely about preservation. To save what is historically important from destruction, so that history remains correct and that subsequent generations are allowed an exhaustive overview of the past. Let us keep in mind that The Brotherhood is one of the original interactive artworks of the world, therefore it remains understandable for it to garner as much attention as it did from a tech-giant such as NTT.

[[1]]Symposium The vasulkas: Preserving Legacy, Nordic House, Reykjavik Symposium Speakers & Participants: Patrícia Falcão, Time-based Media Conservator, Acquisitions and Collection Care, Tate, UK Joey Heinen, Digital Preservation Manager, LACMA – Los Angeles County Museum of Art, US Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir, Founder and Director of BERG Contemporary, IS Christopher King, Assistant Time-based Media Conservator, Acquisitions, Tate, UK George Morris, Time-based Media Conservator, Exhibitions and Displays, Tate, UK Margit Rosen, Art Historian and Curator, ZKM – International Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, DE Halldór Björn Runólfsson, Art Historian and Former Director of the National Gallery of Iceland, IS Kristín Scheving, Director of LÁ Art Museum and Director of the Vasulka Foundation, IS Moderated by Halla Þórlaug Óskarsdóttir, writer and cultural critic

[[2]]woody vasulka:the brotherhood

[[3]] Electric-op in Nantes