A Conversation with Krzysztof Wodiczko

John Harvard Projection is a large-scale projection installation by the artist Krzysztof Wodiczko commissioned by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts. Viewable in the evenings in Harvard Yard from April 20 to 27, the public projection animates the John Harvard statue with faces, voices, words and gestures of Harvard University students based on a series of recorded video interviews conducted by the artist. The interviews are edited, compiled and projected onto the statue making it appear as though John Harvard speaks, superimposing contemporary reflections by students and connecting the historical statue with the present moment.

In association with John Harvard Projection Krzysztof Wodiczko will discuss his work followed by a conversation with James Voorhies, the John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director of the Carpenter Center, and Silvia Benedito, Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Krzysztof Wodiczko makes large-scale slide and video projections that animate public buildings, architectural façades, and monuments.  His projections invite participants into a process of bringing to life the built environment with images of their faces or hands and the sounds of their voices. Exploring the impress that architecture and monuments have on our collective memory and understanding of the past, Wodiczko’s deeply engaging and thoughtful works imbue engrained historical continuums with personal perspectives, recovering an intimacy in broader social, political and institutional narratives. Krzysztof Wodiczko is Professor in Residence of Art, Design and the Public Domain at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

John Harvard Projection is sponsored by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA), a university-wide body, charged with advising the president and provost on developing policies and plans that will enhance the presence of the arts at the university and make the arts a central component of the university’s educational mission.