Acclaimed Vancouver artist Stan Douglas
examines distinctive
aspects of Cuban culture in Inconsolable
Memories, a film installation
accompanied by photographs. Douglas’s
photographs depict
Havana’s re-purposed spaces: former villas turned
into schools, a
church made into a concert hall and a beach resort
that is now
a study centre. These images call to mind his well-
known photographic
exploration of Detroit as a symbol of 20th-century
urban
failures and aspirations. The latest of Douglas’
recombinant narrative
projections is based on Cuban filmmaker Tomás
Gutiérrez
Alea’s 1968 Memories of Underdevelopment.
Douglas updates
the film from its Bay of Pigs setting to the Mariel
expulsions
and uses Alea’s flashback structure for a double
film projection.
Inconsolable Memories is a co-production of the
Morris and Helen
Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver and the Joslyn Art
Museum, Omaha
and is supported by the Canada Council for the
Arts – catalogue
available.

Exhibition tour with AGYU Director Philip Monk
May 7 – see lectures