Description

This presentation by John Hanhardt, Senior Curator of Film and Media Arts at the Guggenheim Museum, reflected on Juan Downey's unique contribution to the history of video art. Through an examination of selected videotapes and installations, John Hanhardt examined how Juan Downey employed a variety of narrative strategies to construct critical engagements with culture and society. Hanhardt reflected on Downey's deployment of irony to expose the contradictions in cultural and institutional discourses of power. Downey's interest in cognitive studies, architectural history and the politics of an emerging globalism inform a rich and complex body of work.