Saastamoinen Foundation Keynote: Stan Douglas
Stan Douglas will give a lecture with the title The Black Mirror or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Photography on 18 September at Dance House Helsinki.
Stan Douglas is an internationally renowned Canadian visual artist living and working in Vancouver and Los Angeles. His work often explores complex issues of identity, history and culture, particularly in relation to colonialism, politics and social structures. Douglas’ art is known for challenging its viewers to think more deeply about social and cultural issues, often offering ambiguous perspectives.
A 45-minute version of Douglas’ video piece Luanda-Kinshasa will be shown at 4pm. The lecture starts at 5pm. During the presentation you are free to enter the space, but after the lecture starts at 5pm the doors will be closed.
Luanda-Kinshasa
The video piece “Luanda-Kinshasa” depicts a fictional live recording of a seventies jazz-funk band laying down a distinct jazz, funk and Afrobeat mix set in a reconstruction of the legendary Columbia 30th Street Studio. The 6-hour video installation combines meticulously recreated period details with an anachronistic, immersive soundscape. A shortened single-channel version of the work will be screened before the keynote lecture.
The Black Mirror or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Photography
Using examples from his own work, Stan Douglas will explore the value of photography’s “unintelligent” automatism. Once the notion of photographic objectivity is abandoned, and the alien, inhuman nature of the medium is acknowledged, it can become a powerful vehicle for human agency.
Stan Douglas is an internationally renowned Canadian visual artist living and working in Vancouver and Los Angeles. His work often explores complex issues of identity, history and culture, particularly in relation to colonialism, politics and social structures. Douglas’ art is known for challenging its viewers to think more deeply about social and cultural issues, often offering ambiguous perspectives.
A 45-minute version of Douglas’ video piece Luanda-Kinshasa will be shown at 4pm. The lecture starts at 5pm. During the presentation you are free to enter the space, but after the lecture starts at 5pm the doors will be closed.
Luanda-Kinshasa
The video piece “Luanda-Kinshasa” depicts a fictional live recording of a seventies jazz-funk band laying down a distinct jazz, funk and Afrobeat mix set in a reconstruction of the legendary Columbia 30th Street Studio. The 6-hour video installation combines meticulously recreated period details with an anachronistic, immersive soundscape. A shortened single-channel version of the work will be screened before the keynote lecture.
The Black Mirror or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Photography
Using examples from his own work, Stan Douglas will explore the value of photography’s “unintelligent” automatism. Once the notion of photographic objectivity is abandoned, and the alien, inhuman nature of the medium is acknowledged, it can become a powerful vehicle for human agency.