Stan Douglas: The Secret Agent

A new film installation by Stan Douglas examining terrorism and political identity in Europe through the combined lenses of history and fiction.

Stan Douglas’s new six-channel video installation is an adaptation of the 1907 novel The Secret Agent, by Joseph Conrad. The book recounts a failed bombing attempt in London, inspired by a real event in 1894. This installation sets the tale within the context of Portugal’s 1975 “Hot Summer,” when terrorist acts by extreme right- and left-wing groups rocked the county.

In this work, Douglas combines fiction with history, revisionism with speculation, and political identities with literary ones. Stan Douglas’ characterizations and storytelling are always much more than meets the eye. His artwork often disrupts conventions of filmmaking and the audience’s relationship to cinema, photography and history.

Stan Douglas is a world-renowned artist living and working in Vancouver. Since the late 1980s, Douglas has produced photographs, films and installations that examine social-political narratives, combine history with fiction, and offer profound analyses of the contemporary subject.

Stan Douglas works with large casts, costumes and stage design to revisit historic moments through complex narratives. His critically acclaimed photographic series “Crowds and Riots” (2008) explores crowd phenomena and forms of uprising in his native Vancouver. With the photography series “Midcentury Studio” (2010–11), Douglas crafted a vernacular of 1950s photography into an astounding, surrealistic photo series. With the series “Disco Angola” (2013), he invented a 1970s photojournalist who documented both the Angolan civil war and the early New York disco scene.

Recent large-scale solo exhibitions include: the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2015); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2014); Carré d’Art-Musée d’Art Contemporain, Nîmes, France (2013); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, USA (2012); The Power Plant, Toronto (2011); Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (2007); and The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY (2005). Most recently, he is the 2016 Winner of Hasselblad International Photography Award.

June 17–20: Austrian and German Art University Workshops

A publication printed by Ludion in collaboration with Wiels (Brussels) accompanies.
 

In the Kabinett space of the Salzburger Kunstverein, is the work of Belgium-based artist, Leyla Aydoslu. Practising in sculpture but trained as a painter, Aydoslu collects detritus and discarded materials to make site-specific “constructions.”

Also continuing is the year-long exhibition in progress and artist residency by German painter, Carsten Fock. Entitled Salzburg, in the Ringgalerie, the exhibition continues to develop until its conclusion in December.

All exhibitions curated by Séamus Kealy, Director, Salzburger Kunstverein.