Viewable in the evenings in Harvard Yard from April 20 to 27, the public projection animates the John Harvard statue with the faces, voices, words and gestures of Harvard University students based on a series of recorded video interviews conducted by the artist. The interviews were edited, compiled and projected onto the statue making it appear as though John Harvard speaks, superimposing contemporary reflections by students and connecting the historical statue with the present.
Krzysztof Wodiczko will discuss his work followed by a conversation with James Voorhies, the John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director of the Carpenter Center, and Silvia Benedito, Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.
Krzysztof Wodiczko is Professor in Residence of Art, Design and the Public Domain at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. He makes large-scale slide and video projections that animate public buildings, architectural façades, and monuments. His projections invite participants into a process of bringing to life the built environment with images of their faces or hands and the sounds of their voices. Exploring the impression that architecture and monuments have on our collective memory and understanding of the past, Wodiczko’s deeply engaging and thoughtful works imbue engrained historical continuums with personal perspectives, recovering an intimacy in broader social, political and institutional narratives.
Source: ccva.fas.harvard.edu, edit. Agata Dudek, 23/04/15.