Marcia Vaitsman

portrait_Dayna_Vaitsman Marcia Vaitsman has a degree in media studies with specialization in radio and TV broadcast from the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. She was a student at the University of Vienna, Austria, in the Media Institute and Germanistic Institute. Vaitsman has a post graduation degree from the prestigious Academy of Media Art (KHM – Kunsthochschule fuer Medien), Germany and a MFA from SCAD, Atlanta.

Vaitsman worked for six years as a member of the artistic team and teaching staff at KHM. Vaitsman has received several prizes such as the Idea Capital Travel Grant, Atlanta; Prize “Mostra de Artistas no Exterior” from the Biennial of Sao Paulo Foundation; Frances Larkin McCommon fellowship from SCAD Atlanta and the project grant from Prince Claus Fund, The Netherlands; project grant from FUNARTE, Rio de Janeiro; artist stipendium from UNESCO-Aschberg, France/Finland; granted artist in residence in IAMAS, Japan; honorable mention, Video Art Prize, Bremen Filmbüro, Germany; Cria de Casa winner, São Paulo; EMMA winner (Electronic Multimedia Award), London, UK. Marcia’s work has been nominated and invited to several video art festivals around the world. Marcia participates in many art exhibitions and events in the Americas, Japan and throughout Europe.

Vaitsman lives in Jersey City, keeping also her residence in Sao Paulo. She is visiting scholar at Parsons in New York and PhD candidate in Contemporary Art at Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal. Vaitsman is represented by Whitespace in Atlanta.

Artist’s Statement

My interest lies in vast empty spaces, slow paces and reduced color pallets. As disorientation is illustrated by giant waves, displaced islands, impossible body shapes, repetition of abstract forms, dark and phantasmagoric landscapes, silent storms, gas bubble-like lights, isolation and desolate cities, I am seeking a sense of tranquility through moving images and sound.

Thematically, my practice is rooted in displacement, migration, miscegenation and how the body-mind copes with disorientation. This is explored through showing the body in situations of chance and unpredictability. In other works, I create a landscape where one could arrive after a lifetime of drifting, where maps of psycho-geography, precarious images of memory, proto-images, impermanence and doubtful, cultural identifications reside.

The interest in science, researching digital media and the observation of mass and social media are a part of the search for a “map” or method, as I try to understand how people form their collectives and identities.

Although I am interested in and concerned about the sustainability of the art world, I do not aim to make works functional to the art market. This stance in part is what drove me to pursue a PhD and research at Universidade de Coimbra. As part of the PhD research at Universidade de Coimbra, as studio practice and critical theory are combined, I establish a connection between disorientation-migration and images of geometry-math. As a result of spending a year in Portugal where I observed repetition of forms of traditional public art, ceramic tile murals, and started working with Processing, geometry has become more present in my work.

These concepts and processes converge into research-based art, resulting in single channel videos, installations and photographs.