Public lecture on 18 September: Stan Douglas
Stan Douglas will give a Saastamoinen Foundation Keynote -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 work 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.
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.