Technologica Representation and the Ideologies of Latin American Difference in Video Trans Americas byJuan Downey: who is shooting?

• Gonzalo Montero ^[1]
  1. [1] Virginia Tech - Wake Forest University

     Virginia Tech - Wake Forest University

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: A Contracorriente: Revista de Historia Social y Literatura en América Latina, ISSN-e 1548-7083, Vol. 16, Nº. 2, 2019 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Winter 2019), págs. 248-263
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • In his long-standing project Video Trans Americas (1973-1979), the Chilean artist Juan Downey video-recorded his encounters with marginal communities of the continent, such as peasants and indigenous people, in order to generate alternative and emancipatory forms of communication within Latin America. In this article, I argue that Video Trans Americas underlines the conflictive relation between the figure of the intellectual, representation, and cultural identity in the Latin American postcolonial context. By analyzing a specific video of the series, I argue that the whole project not only subverts the convention of ethnographic documentary, but also articulates a reflection on the position of the Latin American intellectuals and artists in relation to continental cultural difference