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Guide to the Edin Vâelez Papers and videos, 1970-1994
M0933  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography
  • Collection Scope and Content Summary
  • Access Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Edin Vâelez Papers and videos,
    Date (inclusive): 1970-1994
    Collection number: M0933
    Creator: Vâelez, Edin
    Extent: 6 linear ft.
    Repository: Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.
    Abstract: A pioneer in video art, Vâelez, together with Gary Hill and Bill Viola, was at the forefront of the generation that established video as an art form in the 1970s.
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Access

    The Media materials require at least two weeks advance notice to use in order to allow staff time to have use copies made from the original items.

    Publication Rights

    Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.

    Preferred Citation

    Edin Vâelez Papers and videos. M0933. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

    Acquisition Information

    Purchased, 1997.

    Provenance

    Purchased, 1997.

    Biography

    Educated at the University of Puerto Rico, where he was influenced by Marshal McLuhan, Vâelez subsequently moved to New York where he studied at Global Village. Vâelez has been credited with the development of "a new transequential language of representation," in which multiple scenes are superimposed and juxtaposed within the frame. In this respect, Vâelez's production notes on his video pieces provide a unique and invaluable resource on how he was able to make these advances using analog formats -- nearly a decade before digital formats made layered imagery a standard practice in video production. In his numerous videos, Vâelez has explored other cultures -- from the Cuna Indians of Panama to the Butoh dancers of Japan -- using his unique video aesthetic and language to explore intercultural dialogue and self-reflexive ethnography. Above all, Vâelez's videos attest to the impossibility of a one-to-one translation across cultural boundaries. (Extracted from notes by Chon Noriega, Dept. of Film and Television, UCLA)

    Collection Scope and Content Summary

    Correspondence, scripts, business papers, original artwork, and production stills related to videos. Twenty completed video works, nearly half of which are out of distribution, 51 hours of video documentation including "Behind the Scenes," a 19-hour documentary of the production process for two key works: A MOSQUE IN TIME and MEMORY OF FIRE, and a 32-hour documentary of Japanese Butoh dance, and last, video copies of television interviews with Vâelez for Spanish, Argentinian, and Japanese television.

    Access Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    Butåo.
    Cuna Indians.
    Modern dance--Japan.
    Video art.
    Video recordings.