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Steina: Playback
The first major German retrospective of Icelandic video-art pioneer Steina, spanning early documentaries to multichannel installations exploring machine vision and sound-image interplay.
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Steina draws a bow across her violin, and the picture on the monitor bends with each note. In Violin Power (1970 to 1978) the sound frequencies themselves make and distort the video image. She played in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra before picking up a camera in 1970, and she has treated it as an instrument ever since.
This is her first German retrospective: 21 works from five decades in the Nordgalerie, hung as an orbit rather than a timeline. You stand inside the pieces, not in front of them. Six cameras turn on motorised mirrors in Machine Vision, and 22 monitors carry the American Southwest in The West. Monopol called the show "a school of skeptical seeing".
Expect sustained sound and fast flickering light throughout. The museum warns people with photosensitivity or epilepsy, and has earplugs at the ticket desk. Tickets are €15 (€11 reduced, €5 for students), under-12s go free, and entry is free on the last Friday of the month from 4pm to 10pm. Closed Tuesdays.
Editor's pick
Steina draws a bow across her violin and the picture on the monitor bends with each note. Her first German retrospective puts 21 works from five decades around you; Monopol called it "a school of skeptical seeing".
Look for
Violin Power
Look for Steina playing violin on screen: the frequencies of each note generate and distort the black-and-white video image as you watch.
Machine Vision
Six video cameras and six motorised mirror constructions on silver stands, a 1978 live environment that shows the room from a machine's turning point of view.
The West
Twenty-two monitors fill with the American Southwest: deserts, Pueblo cliff dwellings and radio telescopes.
Borealis
Icelandic water and geothermal footage, rotated so you lose your bearings, runs across large transparent screens with four channels of sound.
Outer Cosmos
Her newest work, a 24-minute video shown here for the first time, puts a layered, fed-back 1970s studio self-portrait at the centre of a spherical image space.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Skip if
You are sensitive to flicker: the museum warns of rapidly changing images and flickering light.
With kids
Under-12s go free, and pupils and students from 12 pay €5. Sustained sound and flickering light run throughout, and earplugs are available at the ticket desk.
Also at Haus der Kunst
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Image credits
7
- Steina: PlaybackCourtesy of Haus der Kunst
- Stonehenge. Ancient Discoveries, New MysteriesCourtesy of Bavarian State Archaeological Collection
- Liminal SpacesCourtesy of Bavarian National Museum
- Haus der KunstAvda / www.avda-foto.de, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Bavarian State Archaeological CollectionBurkhard Mücke / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- Bavarian National MuseumRufus46, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Munich ResidenzAvi1111 dr. avishai teicher / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0