On February 12th, there was an exclusive tour of the Bronx Museum show, Juan Downey: the Invisible Architect, given by curator Valerie Smith, Marilys Downey, widow of Juan Downey, and Juan Downey collaborator David Ross. Juan Downey was a native of Chile who later moved to New York to work.
Downey's work includes sketches, photographs, paintings and performance art pieces. This was a new game, and Downey was often not considered commercial in his time. Earlier in his career, in 1961, he went to Barcelona, Spain and Paris, France and was very concerned with Europe and modernism. Later, Juan Downey centered his work more on indigenous cultures of Central and South America. His videos follow peasant families in Latin America, filled with peasant families eating, villages, farming of terraces on hills and mountains, and waterfalls. Many of Downey’s videos are documentaries, but they were controversial when shown at the Clarity Film Seminar, because they were thought of as too subjective. Downey did this on purpose, seeing his viewpoint as a basic part of the film produced.
In early work, in Downey’s 30 minute video, Plato Now, participants are shown meditating and chanting. This is a performance art piece that was only performed once in a formal setting, but is captured in video. It was a bit like the story of Plato’s Cave in the book “the Republic.” Like Plato wrote that people in the cave only see the shadows of reality, people in the video only saw the shadows of people who watched them.
Later, Juan Downey went with the primitive Yanomami Indians in the Amazon rainforest to study them. He was fascinated with the Yanomami practices of meditation, and sketched many spirals and other forms associated with his concept of their meditations. Later, when Downey made sketches of an ideal beach house that are on display, he incorporated the ideas of the Yanomami, including their communal house, the Shabono. The Shabono was not permanent and would move every five years.
Downey also had a strong interest in European art history. The exhibition includes a number of Downey’s perspective studies of the famous Velazquez painting, Las Meninas, showing members of the Spanish royal family. He showed that the perspective had the best view from where the King would be seated, showing that Velazaquez painted for the common person, not just for royalty. Another video shown on a huge wall screen is of a French royal palace at Versailles. Downey was interested in politics and power, and also culture, with another video highlighted the work of classical composer J.S. Bach. In a darker piece, the role of cages and prisons is shown, referencing the diary of Ann Frank, victim of the Nazi holocaust, and victims of the Chilean dictator Pinochet.
In all, Downey’s work examines many themes, around the organization of architecture, politics, culture and society. The Downey exhibit will be on display at the Bronx Museum until May 20th. For more information see http://bronxmuseum.org or call 718-681-6000.
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