Entering the art scene of the 1970s, characterised by the development of new art forms and the increasing interconnectedness and inter-indistinguishability of individual artistic disciplines, The Kitchen’s programme took several directions from its inception. Its diversity, generally unified by an interest in experimentation with electronic signal, can be well observed in the accompanying calendars, which chart the monthly dramaturgy of the space led by Woody and Steina Vasulka in 1972.

Monday nights were devoted to concerts of electronic music of various forms (performances with synthesizers, music concretes, sound compositions with video, etc.), while Wednesdays were devoted to open public screenings. Anyone who came with a videotape could participate. On Fridays and Saturdays there were live audiovisual performances, whose authors used actors, music in conjunction with video and unusual musical instruments. In its early years, The Kitchen also devoted its space to important festivals, such as the first Women’s Video Festival in 1972, which Steina initiated with documentary filmmaker Susan Milano to showcase otherwise heavily underrepresented women artists working in video and electronics.

For further information, we refer you to the book Woody and Steina Vasulka by curator and art theorist Lenka Dolanová: Dialogue with Demons (published by NAMU, 2011), which is freely available in the library of the Vasulka Kitchen Brno.

The photographs come from the unprocessed archive of Vašulka Kitchen Brno.