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hotel diary

Nataša Stearns

2018

OVERVIEW : A long forgotten encounter comes to life through fragments of real and imagined recollections. Longing, memories and nostalgia are at play in a chronicle of an affair, set in a deserted interiors of a Los Angeles hotel. Water is present everywhere, not just as an element, but indicating the subconscious and desire. The atmosphere reminds of Hitchcock’s Rebecca and Fritz Lang’s Secret Beyond the Door.  ​ BIOGRAPHY : Nataša Prosenc Stearns is a Slovenian born visual artist and filmmaker, who works with video, film and digital techniques, exploring innovative strategies in visual and narrative expressions. Her body of work ranges from single and multi-channel videos, video installations, short and feature films, video objects and print media. She is known for creative use of non-gallery spaces and large multi-channel projections. Nataša studied graphic design at The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana Slovenia, where she started experimenting with moving images. She received a Fulbright Grant to study in the USA and earned her MFA at The School of Film/Video at California Institute of the Arts. Nataša's work has been featured in such institutions as the Douloun Museum of Art in Shanghai, Circulo de bellas artes and ARCO Fair in Madrid, Kunstlerwerkstatt in Munich, Bevilacqua la masa in Venice, Spazio Erasmus Brera in Milan, Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Museum of Modern Art in Slovenia, Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel, The European Capital of Culture Commission and in festivals such as SXSW Austin, ISEA Helsinki, Video forms Clermond-Ferrand, Los Angeles New Wave International Festival, World Wide Video Festival Amsterdam, Films de femmes Paris, Melbourne Film Festival, New York Expo, Brooklyn Film Festival, Pandemonium London, Cinematheque108 USC Los Angeles, Pacific Film Archives Berkeley, RedCat Los Angeles and Chicago Independent Film Festival. She exhibited twice at the Venice Biennale. First she represented Slovenia at the 48th Biennale for which she received Prešern Fund Award, a national award for great achievement in art, and in 2015 she was part of the Biennale’s group exhibition 20 Artists from Los Angeles, presented by bardoLA. She is a recipient of the Durffee and Soros Grants among others. ​ DIRECTOR STATMENT : Project Hotel Diary exists as an experimental film, as a series of single-channel videos and as a video installation. Gender bending approach is frequent in Nataša Prosenc Stearns works. They reflect the world through a prism of imaginative, sometimes surreal or utopian prospect of non-anthropocentric future, where everything is connected and coexists with equal significance. The process of layering integrates different visual elements, like people and their environment, and suggests new possibilities for interaction and regeneration. Sourcing from personal experiences, Nataša's films and videos reflect the impact of technological and social changes on people, with specific interest in changing gender landscape. It reflects the world of consumerism, continuous political crisis and addiction to technology. Finding a ground of connection that unites people with the organic world, she is testing the limitations of human, mainly female, body and hinting at its potential limitlessness. The anatomy of the images is in flux, in perpetual mutation, transformative states, questioning the integrity of the body, integrity of the self, the impermanence and transitory nature of human condition, of all conditions.

OVERVIEW :
A long forgotten encounter comes to life through fragments of real and imagined recollections. Longing, memories and nostalgia are at play in a chronicle of an affair, set in a deserted interiors of a Los Angeles hotel. Water is present everywhere, not just as an element, but indicating the subconscious and desire. The atmosphere reminds of Hitchcock’s Rebecca and Fritz Lang’s Secret Beyond the Door. 

​

BIOGRAPHY :
Nataša Prosenc Stearns is a Slovenian born visual artist and filmmaker, who works with video, film and digital techniques, exploring innovative strategies in visual and narrative expressions. Her body of work ranges from single and multi-channel videos, video installations, short and feature films, video objects and print media. She is known for creative use of non-gallery spaces and large multi-channel projections.

Nataša studied graphic design at The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana Slovenia, where she started experimenting with moving images. She received a Fulbright Grant to study in the USA and earned her MFA at The School of Film/Video at California Institute of the Arts.

Nataša's work has been featured in such institutions as the Douloun Museum of Art in Shanghai, Circulo de bellas artes and ARCO Fair in Madrid, Kunstlerwerkstatt in Munich, Bevilacqua la masa in Venice, Spazio Erasmus Brera in Milan, Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Museum of Modern Art in Slovenia, Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel, The European Capital of Culture Commission and in festivals such as SXSW Austin, ISEA Helsinki, Video forms Clermond-Ferrand, Los Angeles New Wave International Festival, World Wide Video Festival Amsterdam, Films de femmes Paris, Melbourne Film Festival, New York Expo, Brooklyn Film Festival, Pandemonium London, Cinematheque108 USC Los Angeles, Pacific Film Archives Berkeley, RedCat Los Angeles and Chicago Independent Film Festival.

She exhibited twice at the Venice Biennale. First she represented Slovenia at the 48th Biennale for which she received Prešern Fund Award, a national award for great achievement in art, and in 2015 she was part of the Biennale’s group exhibition 20 Artists from Los Angeles, presented by bardoLA. She is a recipient of the Durffee and Soros Grants among others.

​

DIRECTOR STATMENT :
Project Hotel Diary exists as an experimental film, as a series of single-channel videos and as a video installation. Gender bending approach is frequent in Nataša Prosenc Stearns works. They reflect the world through a prism of imaginative, sometimes surreal or utopian prospect of non-anthropocentric future, where everything is connected and coexists with equal significance. The process of layering integrates different visual elements, like people and their environment, and suggests new possibilities for interaction and regeneration.

Sourcing from personal experiences, Nataša's films and videos reflect the impact of technological and social changes on people, with specific interest in changing gender landscape. It reflects the world of consumerism, continuous political crisis and addiction to technology. Finding a ground of connection that unites people with the organic world, she is testing the limitations of human, mainly female, body and hinting at its potential limitlessness. The anatomy of the images is in flux, in perpetual mutation, transformative states, questioning the integrity of the body, integrity of the self, the impermanence and transitory nature of human condition, of all conditions.

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