2012, HD video
Curated by Todd Shalom
The Blue
4PM - 4AM, continuous loop

Limpia expands upon Juan Betancurth’s personal relationship with objects. In this video, he morphs household items into perverse tools to enact morbid scenarios where his fantasies mingle with past experiences and a constant feeling of apathy toward others.

Juan Betancurth blurs dreamlife, memory and the present through sculpture, installation and performance. He creates installations to frame his performance work and draws upon poetry, religious rites and domestic routines to both re-configure roles within family and offer a place of community to participants. Betancurth has shown his work domestically and internationally, at galleries and festivals. Born in Manizales, Colombia, Betancurth now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

The Blue is a familiar sight on Chelsea’s gay strip. A store for pornographic video, it also houses buddy booths for men with a wide array of gay/trans videos to watch. In 2005, it was shut down briefly for prostitution during a series of entrapment raids by the NYPD. Betancurth selected this venue, as it was the first place he had sex in New York.