EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
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JUAN BELLO

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Juan Andrés Bello is a documentary researcher and producer who explores the use of archival materials–photos, footage, and textual records–for storytelling purposes. Over the last two decades, his practice has covered a wide range of subjects: architecture, history, cultural heritage, and human rights; both in Latin America and Canada. His portfolio includes independent films, and projects commissioned by A&E, The Biography Channel, and HBO Latin America, as well as digital resources and exhibitions for museums and cultural institutions.

His work has been exhibited at specialized film festivals, including the International Festival of Films on Art / Festival International du Film sur L´Art (FIFA) in Montreal (2009, 2012, and 2013). Villanueva The Devil, his documentary on Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was selected to be part of A Tale of Two Worlds, an art exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt (MMK) and the Museo of Modern Art in Buenos Aires (2017-2018)


Juan is a member of the Visual Researchers’ Society of Canada, and the Documentary Organization of Canada. He also teaches at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS)–University of Western Ontario.

Please visit his website for more information.

WORK:

The Chalatenango Massacres

The Chalatenango Massacres documents the crimes committed by the Salvadoran army and paramilitary groups against peasant communities during the first years of the Civil War (1979-1982). The project was produced in collaboration with the survivors of the massacres, and it was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts (Explore and Create Program), the London Arts Council, and the Sumpul Association. For more information: https://memorial-chalatenango.com/

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Road to Las Aradas, the site of the Sumpul Massacre
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Maria Celia Mejivar and Rogelio Quintanilla, survivors of The Chalatenango Masscres
The Chalatenango Massacres – Nicolas Rivera
​Link to video here

The Chalatenango Massacres – Rosaura Rivera
​Link to video here

The Chalatenango Massacres – Preview
​Link to video here

WORK IN PROGRESS

The Telenovela Archives: The Early Years – an Exercise on Visual Archaeology

The project has the structure of an open archive, it is an evolving collection of visual records–knowledge and memories–that will illustrate the huge impact that television, and more specifically serialized fiction, had in the political, social, and cultural history of Latin America during the 1950s and 1960s. It is also a storytelling exercise: it will present the authors, the work that they created, and the circumstances surrounding its production and dissemination, in a way that will allow the audience to identify cause-effect connections, and to understand the ‘telenovela’ phenomenon (the Latin American version 
of the North American and British soap-operas), in a historical context.

​The project is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts (Explore and Create Program), and involves collaboration with archives in the US, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil.
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La Mentira (1952), Private Collection
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Fidel Castro, 1959, Time-Life Collection–via Getty Images
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Jackie Kennedy at La Morita, John F. Kennedy visit to Venezuela, 1961, JFK Presidential Library
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Lucecita (1967), Venevisión
Oil Explorers
This documentary project investigates the story of the Southwestern Ontario men who worked on the first oil fields in Venezuela (early 20th century), part of a group of people known in Canadian history as the foreign drillers. I am particularly interested in the images that the oil drillers brought home from their travels. These personal records are some of the earliest images of the oil-age in Venezuela. In the following decades the representation of the country evolved into a conscious
task, systematically performed by the Venezuelan government and international oil corporations. The project is supported by the London Arts Council.

PREVIOUS WORKS

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The Dominion Public Building
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On-To-Ottawa Trek
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Expo 67: Canada Welcomes the World
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Discover London Art
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Click!
Villanueva The Devil
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Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas – Architectural Drawing –UCV-COPRED
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Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas – Mural, Mateo Manaure, 1954 (detail)
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7th Seoul International Architecture Film Festival, Seoul, Korea, 2015
Villanueva The Devil | Expo 67: Venezuela
​Link to video here
El Cerrito
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Interview: Juan Andrés Bello – Visual Researcher


EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou and Dan Smoke,  and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

WEB DESIGN & SOCIAL MEDIA 
Tariq Hassan Gordon, Ira Kazi, Olivia Mossuto, Niloufar Salimi,  JoAnna Weil 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Blessy Augustine, Shelley Kopp, 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Andreas Buchwaldt, Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Ira Kazi, ​Shelley Kopp, Ashar Mobeen, Niloufar Salimi,  Jenna Rose Sands, JoAnna Weil & Michelle Wilson. 

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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. Other former members of the board were: Debrann Eastabrook, Henry Eastabrook, Sharron Forrest, Wyn Geleynse, Janice Gurney, Jean Hay (1929 - 2008), Doug Mitchell, Kim Moodie, Gerard Pas, Peter Rist, Wanda Sawicki, Jean Spence and Jennie White. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
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Thank you to our partners

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E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

​London, Ontario is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.

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  • Home
    • ECH News
  • Community
  • Exhibitions
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  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About