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5/4/2005

Alfredo Jaar

Florida International University, Miami

The artist inaugurates The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Community Art Project

Lecture by acclaimed contemporary artist Alfredo Jaar: Wednesday, April 6th at 7:30 pm

“Our society is blind. We have lost our ability to be affected by imagery.” 1
– Alfredo Jaar

In collaboration with the Art and Art History Department, the Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC), and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum of Florida International University (FIU), the Cuban Research Institute (CRI) is pleased to inaugurate the Félix González-Torres Community Art Project with a lecture by acclaimed contemporary artist Alfredo Jaar. Free and open to the public, the lecture will take place on Wednesday, April 6th at 7:30 p.m. in the Graham Center East Ballroom, University Park, Florida International University.

Born in Chile and based in New York since 1982, Jaar is particularly attuned to the power of images. Global in scope, his work often focuses on photographic representations of human suffering induced by political injustice. Since the 1980s, Jaar has created installations that combine elements of photography, architecture, and theater, and often feature graphic images that explore issues of poverty, exploitation, violence, war, and genocide. Although such graphic scenes of violence and injustice saturate the media, Jaar believes that society has become immune to their power. In his own words, “I believe that we have lost the ability to see and be moved by images.”

Jaar’s work has been shown extensively around the world. Past projects have depicted the slaughter of the Tutsi by Rwandan death squads, the working conditions of Brazilian miners, the detainment of Vietnamese boat people by the Hong Kong government, and the death of undocumented immigrants attempting to cross the US-Mexico border. He has participated in the Venice, Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, Sydney, Istanbul, and Kwangju Biennales as well as Documenta in Kassel; major solo exhibitions include the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Whitechapel in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

The lecture by Jaar will inaugurate the Félix González-Torres Community Art Project, a three-year education initiative which will bring cutting-edge artists to the campus of FIU. Through this project the CRI seeks to celebrate the legacy of Gonzalez-Torres, one of the leading conceptual artists of the twentieth century who remains rather unknown in Miami despite his stature in the art world. In honor of his commitment to art education, the project will provide students opportunities to collaborate with internationally known artists such as Jaar, who will spend one week on campus visiting studios and giving a master class. The initiative was made possible by a generous donation from Andrea Rosen and The Félix González-Torres Foundation; other sponsors of Jaar’s visit include Merrill Lynch Arteaméricas, the Design Center of the Americas, and the Miami Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs.

For more information or to RSVP for the lecture, contact Alma de Rojas at the Cuban Research Institute: (305) 348 1991.

ArtNexus will offer at site; Two books with Alfredo Jaar’s work “It is Difficult and Let There Be Light”. It is Difficult is the chronology of his most important projects. Let There Be Light is a visual and written documentary on the Rwanda Project. An edition by Actar, Barcelona. 380 color illustrations. 240 pages per book. Available in English and/or Spanish. Special price of US$. 40.00. http.//www.artnexus.com/bookjaar.html

1 - Quoted in “A Language of Light Amid Darkness,” Nancy Princenthal, The New York Times, October 20, 2002.

Florida International University
The Graham Center East Ballroom
University Park
S.W. 107th Avenue and 8th Street
Miami

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