| The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has announced “Lost in Place: Voyages in Video,” an online screening series of 11 videos by international contemporary artists. The featured artworks, spanning the past 20 years, include classic works and favorites from the Hirshhorn’s collection and delve into the complicated, unusual and uneasy relationships between people and the places they inhabit. Viewed in the present context—more than a year into the global pandemic—the works take on new relevance not only as artworks that speak to the moment, but also as art forms that reflect today’s primary mode of communication and connection: video. Hosted on hirshhorn.si.edu starting May 14, the series will make a new video available for streaming each week for 11 weeks. Each video will remain on view for one month, with the last viewable through Aug. 20.
Organized by Marina Isgro, the Hirshhorn’s Associate Curator of Media and Performance Art and Robert and Arlene Kogod Secretarial Scholar, “Lost in Place” includes videos exploring the subjects of home, travel and the natural world. The series speaks in particular to the effects of the past year’s reduced human mobility, which some theoreticians have termed an “anthropause.” The consequences of this stagnation have impacted our natural environment, even affecting animal behavior and air pollution levels.
“‘Lost in Place’ develops a new context for works in the museum’s moving-image collection to challenge viewers’ notions of space and boundaries,” said Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu. “The Hirshhorn is always positioning itself to make art relatable for the widest possible audience. For the first time in a century, the entire world has shared the experience of a pandemic. I am delighted that while our indoor galleries remain closed, we are able to offer audiences the opportunity to experience the art of our time through a platform that reflects the content’s same universality.”
“Lost in Place” furthers the Hirshhorn’s commitment to new media art, joining initiatives such as the museum’s Black Box series and, most recently, the museum’s first-ever online exhibition, “In the Beginning: Media Art and History” (Oct. 1–Dec. 31, 2020), which explored contemporary video, sound and performance artists’ use of new technologies and formats to interpret history. |
