VIVID [RADICAL] MEMORY

Born in 1956 in Santiago, Chile, Alfredo Jaar resided in Martinique from the ages of six to sixteen. He received degrees in filmmaking, from the Institute Chileno-Norteamericano de Cultura, Santiago, in 1979, and architecture, from the Universidad de Chile, Santiago, in 1981. Jaar moved to New York in 1982. Although he has produced work in a variety of mediums, he is best known for installations with photographic light boxes and mirrors. While the fact that these installations are site-specific and industrially produced reflects his architectural training, the use of illuminated images arranged in a manner reminiscent of cinematic montage attests to his background in film. Visually, the works recall Minimalist objects created by such artists as Robert Morris and Donald Judd. The use of photographic images, however, and a strategic arrangement of the light boxes on which they are displayed, allow the artist to address social and political issues neglected by the Minimalists. Investigating the political inequities between the so-called first and third worlds, Jaar has dealt with such topics as the plight of the gold miners of Brazil's Serra Pelada; the immigration of Latin Americans across the Rio Grande; the exportation of toxic waste by industralized countries to Koko, Nigeria; and the detention of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. A meticulous researcher, he usually travels to each site, where he takes the photographs he uses in his installations. Jaar has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1985), the National Endowment for the Arts (1987), the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch-dienst Berliner Kunstlerprogram (1989), and other institutions.

Biography by John Alan Farmer in:RASMUSSEM, Aldo (ed.). Latin american artists of the twentieth century. Catálogo de exposição. New York: MOMA, 1993. p.382

ALFREDO JAAR: short narrative biography

Updated: April 2009

[http://www.alfredojaar.net]

Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect, and filmmaker who lives and works in New York. He was born in Santiago de Chile in 1956. His work has been shown extensively around the world. He has participated in the Biennales of Venice (1986, 2007), São Paulo (1987, 1989), Sydney (1990), Istanbul (1995), Kwangju (1995, 2000), Johannesburg (1997), and Seville (2006), as well as the Documenta

exhibitions (1987, 2002) in Kassel.

Important individual exhibitions include the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1992); Whitechapel, London (1992); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1992); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1994); Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2005); Fundación Telefónica, Santiago (2006);Musée des Beaux Arts, Lausanne (2007); and Hangar Bicocca and Spazio Oberdan, Milan (2008).

He has created more than fifty Public Interventions around the world. More than thirty-six monographic publications have been published about his work.He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1985 and a MacArthur Fellow in 2000. In 2006 he received Spain’s Premio Extremadura a la Creación.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2005 – 2009

2009

The Sound of Silence, Galerie Lelong, New York

Muxima, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Continental Rifts, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles

New Acquisitions and Donations 2007 & 2008, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark

For You, Daros Exhibitions, Zürich, Switzerland

Aletheia - Positions in Contemporary Photography, Helsinki City Art Museum / Art, Museum Meilahti, Helsinki

2008

“Alfredo Jaar: Politics of the Image,” South London Gallery, London

“Gold in the Morning,” Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya

“Is the wind you? (For Kurihara Sadako),” Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo

“It Is Difficult,” Spazio Oberdan and Hangar Bicocca, Milan

“Risky Business Art,” Kunstpanorama, Lucerne

“Aurum: L’or dans l’art contemporain,” Centre PasquArt, Biel

“Worlds on Video,” Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

“That Was Then...This Is Now,” P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York

“Africa On: Beecroft, Jaar, Kentridge,” Galleria Lia Rumma, Milan

“Arte ≠ Vida: Actions by Artists of the Americas, 1960 - 2000,” El Museodel Barrio, New York

“Pictures in Series,” Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, New York

“Framing and Being Unframed: The Uses of Documentary Photography,” Ezraand Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut

2007

Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut

“La Politique des Images,” Musée Cantonal des Beaux - Artes, Lausanne

“Muxima,” CCB, Lisbon

“To Be Continued...,: Art Created for Magasin 3 Over Twenty Years,” Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm

“AfterShock,” Sainsbury Centre for the Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England

“Afterglow,” Galerie Pfreim, Lacoste

“Check List: Luanda Pop,” 52nd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice

“Puntos de Vista,” Zeitgenossisceh Kunst aus der Daros - Latinamerica Collection, Museum Bochum, Bochum

“Sharjah Biennial 8 - Still Life: Art, Ecology, and the Politics of Change,” Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah

“The Power of Ten: Gifts in Honor of Miami Art Museum’s 10th Anniversary,” Miami Art Museum, Miami

“Macro Future,” Museo Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome

“Scenes and Sequences: Peter Blum Edition, New York - A Selection from 1980 to 2006,” Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau

“New Perspectives in Latin American Art, 1930 - 2006: Prints, Photographs, and Media Works,”

Museum of Modern Art, New York

“Equatorial Rhythms,” Stenersen Museum, Oslo

“Constructing A Poetic Universe: The Diane and Bruce Halle Collection of Latin American Art," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

“Existencias,” MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y León, León

“Private/Corporate IV: The Lekha and Anupam Poddar Collection indialogue with the Daimler Chrysler Collection,”

Haus Huth, Berlin

“System Error: War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning,” Palazzo delle Papesse - Centro Arte Contemporanea, Sienna

“Turbulence: 3rd Auckland Triennial,” Auckland, New Zealand

“Negatec,” Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Buenos Aires IBCA - International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Prague

2006

“Jaar SCL 2006,” Sala de Arte Fundación Telefonica, and Galeria Gabriela Mistral, Santiago

“Muxima,” MAMCO, Geneva

“Muxima,” Fundacion Tapies, Barcelona

“Muxima,” Reina Sofia, Madrid

“Muxima,” Galerie Lelong, New York

“Muxima,” Galeria Oliva Arauna, Madrid

“Alfredo Jaar: The Eyes of Gutete Emerita,” Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

“Confini - Boundaries,” Museo d’Arte Provincia Nuoro, Nuoro

“Primitivism Revisited: After the End of an Idea,” Sean Kelly Gallery, New York

1st Architecture, Art and Landscape Biennial of the Canaries, Canary Islands

“The Gold Standard,” P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York

2nd International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville (BIACS2), Seville

“Kapital,” Kent Gallery, New York

“Into me/ Out of me,” P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York; traveled to Kunst - Werke Berlin,

KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin

“Beautiful Suffering - Photography and the Traffic in Pain,” Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts

“Review - 25 Jahre Österreischische Ludwig Stiftung,” MUMOK Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna

“The Past Made Present: Contemporary Art and Memory,” Museum of Fine Arts,Houston

“A Curator´s Eye: The Visual Legacy of Robert A. Sobieszek,” LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

“En las fronteras,” Villa Croce Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Genoa

“La visíon impura, Fondos de la colección permanente,” MNCARS Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

“Gyroscope,” Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. Festival Photo et Video de Biarritz,

Biarritz Brighton Photo Biennial, Fabrica, Brighton

“Gardens,” Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota

“TRANSactions: Contemporary Latin American and Latino Art,” Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego,

La Jolla; traveling through 2008 toMemorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY;

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro,NC

“FotoFest2006: Artists Responding to Violence,” DiverseWorks Artspace,Houston

“Conjonctions,” Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva

2005

“Muxima,” Villa Medici, Roma

“Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom,” MACRO, Museo Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome

“Le ceneri di Gramsci,” Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome

“The Eyes of Gutete Emerita,” Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston

“Muxima,” Grand Arts, Kansas City

“Outside Europe: Aus der Sammlung Daimler Chrysler,” Daimler Chrysler Contemporary, Berlin

“The Fluidity of Time - Selections from the MCA Collection,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

“Lichtkunst aus Kunstlicht,” ZKM | Museum für Neue Kunst & Medienmuseum, Karlsruhe

“Old News,” Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles

“Nuove acquisizioni. Due anni di crescita della collezione MACRO,” Museod'Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome

“Identity and Nomadism,” Palazzo delle Papesse - Centro ArteContemporanea, Sienna

“Figuratively Speaking,” Miami Art Museum, Miami

“Flight 405,” Galerie Sfier - Semler, Hamburg

“The Hours: Visual Arts of Contemporary Latin America,” Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin;

traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

“Concerning War - Soft Target. War as a Daily, First - Hand Reality,” BAK,Utrecht

“Marking time: moving images,” Miami Art Museum, Miami

“Sight - Cruising,” Marugame Genichiro - Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Marugame

“At The Mercy of Others: The Politics of Care,” Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program Exhibition

at the Art Gallery of the Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York

“Points of View: Landscape and Photography,” Galerie Lelong, New York

“05 WEST Know Your Rights Festival,” Leipzig

“Atomica: Making the Invisible Visible,” Lombard - Freid Fine Arts and Esso Gallery, New York

“Miradas y conceptos en la colección Helga de Alvear,” MEIAC Museo Extrmeño eIberoamericano

de Arte Contemporáneo, Badajoz

“Fotografia! Arte 2005: Latin American Photography,” Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa

“Double Exposure,” Godt - Cleary Projects, Las Vegas, Nevada

“Mapping Space: Selections from the Collection,” Miami Art Museum, Miami

“Emergencias,” MUSAC Museo Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y León, León

“Veinte años y un día,” Galeria Oliva Arauna, Madrid