Claudia Joskowicz: Sympathy for the Devil
Thursday 20 December, 2012
6:30pm, $0
Goethe-Institut, Wyoming Building
5 East 3rd Street
As part of Claudia Joskowicz's video installation Sympathy for the Devil, on view thorugh December 23 at 141 Division Street in Chinatown, Forever & Today presents an off-site talk at the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building. The event includes a screening of the artist's recent films and a conversation with her and curator Sara Reisman about the her film installation at Forever & Today in reference to her other work.
Sympathy for the Devil (2011) depicts a reenacted encounter between two neighbors in La Paz, Bolivia: a Polish Jewish refugee who emigrated to Bolivia during World War II and former Nazi Klaus Barbie, then living in Bolivia under the assumed name of Klaus Altman. During the 1970s, both men lived parallel lives as neighbors, mutually aware of the other's existence—meeting daily in the elevator.
Joskowicz's video installation is based on an anecdote recounted to her by a close relative and her own memory of visits paid to her relative as a child. An interlude between the two men plays out against the bleak landscape of La Paz, revealing the contrast between the lives of these two men who left behind opposing futures in Europe for a shared view of the Bolivian landscape from their high-rise apartments. A simple interaction in the elevator highlights a recurring situation in Bolivia and greater Latin America in the post-war period when the region offered asylum to both persecuted Jews and Nazi Germans, antagonistic communities in Europe, yet somehow coexisting in a relative lull in Latin America.
Sympathy for the Devil builds on Joskowicz's approach to filmmaking, examining history and its repercussions on the physical and symbolic landscape, while making reference to the medium itself. Through her use of long, single shots, Joskowicz redirects the viewer's gaze to the physical movement of the camera through space and to movement in a more abstract sense, through an imaginary cinematic space. On the whole, her work addresses the way technology mediates and redefines concepts like history, memory, and reality. Claudia Joskowicz lives and works in New York and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. She received her MFA from New York University in 2000. Joskowicz's work has been shown in various solo and group exhibitions, including Museo Nacional de Arte, La Paz, Bolivia (2009); Slought Foundation, Philadelphia (2011); 29th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo (2010); 10th Havana Biennial, Havana (2009); and Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, New York (2005). She has received awards including John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2011); 17th Videobrasil Festival Residency Prize (2011); Fulbright Scholar Award (2009); East Harlem Arts Grant (2009); and New York Association of Hispanic Artists/Urban Artists Initiative Fellowship (2008). Joskowicz is an adjunct professor at New York University's Steinhardt Art Department.
Sympathy for the Devil (2011) depicts a reenacted encounter between two neighbors in La Paz, Bolivia: a Polish Jewish refugee who emigrated to Bolivia during World War II and former Nazi Klaus Barbie, then living in Bolivia under the assumed name of Klaus Altman. During the 1970s, both men lived parallel lives as neighbors, mutually aware of the other's existence—meeting daily in the elevator.
Joskowicz's video installation is based on an anecdote recounted to her by a close relative and her own memory of visits paid to her relative as a child. An interlude between the two men plays out against the bleak landscape of La Paz, revealing the contrast between the lives of these two men who left behind opposing futures in Europe for a shared view of the Bolivian landscape from their high-rise apartments. A simple interaction in the elevator highlights a recurring situation in Bolivia and greater Latin America in the post-war period when the region offered asylum to both persecuted Jews and Nazi Germans, antagonistic communities in Europe, yet somehow coexisting in a relative lull in Latin America.
Sympathy for the Devil builds on Joskowicz's approach to filmmaking, examining history and its repercussions on the physical and symbolic landscape, while making reference to the medium itself. Through her use of long, single shots, Joskowicz redirects the viewer's gaze to the physical movement of the camera through space and to movement in a more abstract sense, through an imaginary cinematic space. On the whole, her work addresses the way technology mediates and redefines concepts like history, memory, and reality. Claudia Joskowicz lives and works in New York and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. She received her MFA from New York University in 2000. Joskowicz's work has been shown in various solo and group exhibitions, including Museo Nacional de Arte, La Paz, Bolivia (2009); Slought Foundation, Philadelphia (2011); 29th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo (2010); 10th Havana Biennial, Havana (2009); and Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, New York (2005). She has received awards including John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2011); 17th Videobrasil Festival Residency Prize (2011); Fulbright Scholar Award (2009); East Harlem Arts Grant (2009); and New York Association of Hispanic Artists/Urban Artists Initiative Fellowship (2008). Joskowicz is an adjunct professor at New York University's Steinhardt Art Department.