Stayna: Playback

About the Exhibition

This is the first retrospective in Germany of Steina (born Steinunn Briem Bjarnadóttir, 1940, Reykjavík, Iceland). A pioneer of video and media art, Steina began working with video in the late 1960s, approaching media from a musical sensibility. Her work proceeds by having sound generate image and image generate sound, with video becoming vibration and flow, transforming elements into environment. The exhibition explores the 'machine vision' Steina pursued throughout her career, from her early documentary experiments to her multichannel installations — an approach that pushes perception beyond human limits through play and a non-human viewpoint, rather than a human-centered one. The exhibition shows how her work expanded from the landscapes of Iceland, through the experimental infrastructures of New York and Buffalo, to dialogue with European media art institutions. In particular, the title 'Playback,' in which sound and music are central to the making of the exhibition, emphasizes the polyphonic backdrop of sound and vision.