Maria Vedder has been a media artist since the late seventies. She was a full professor at the Berlin University of the Arts, Germany from 1991 – 2014. Vedder has undergone long periods of artistic research in Asia, where she has also has been guest lecturer on numerous occasions. An author of books on the subject of video art „Kunst und Video“ and „DuMonts Handbuch der Videopraxis“ (DuMont-publishing house, Cologne), she won the main prize in the 1988 „Marler Video Art Award“ for her work „The Heartbeat of Anubis“.
In 2012 she won the grant EMARE MEXICO of the European Commission and conducted a 2 month artist residency in Mexico to produce a multi channel video and audio installation. She has exhibited in Europe, Australia and Asia and her videos have been shown all over the world. Her work is represented in numerous collections: the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/Kupferstichkabinett
(Museum of Prints and Drawings), Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, the ZKM/Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Center for Art and Media) in Karlsruhe, Germany, and the Tate Gallery in Liverpool to name a few.
Maria Vedder is a collector of the visible. During everyday life in Berlin while also carrying out research and lecturing across the globe the artist collects her visual-material and interweaves it in her
“Inszenierungen des Alltags” to create mini-stories.
Pure and concentrating on the essential, Maria Vedder discovers rare “treasures of meaning” beyond the visible. Watching videos from Vedder is a bit like reading haiku: with our meditative hand luggage we dive into the lightness of being. While these miniatures bring out the invisible or hidden side of images. Nowadays her work takes a different direction. In multi-channel installations the visible signs of the invisible in our daily life, such as electro-smog, the financial crisis or mass media are more focused upon.