Exhibition "Lament of the Images - Alfredo Jaar

Sesc Pompeia presents a new exhibition of Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar   Large-scale physical installations present Jaar's way of thinking about his politics of images in the contemporary world, and also reveal reflections around forms of social control and the maintenance of inequalities. At Sesc, on-site activities follow strict protocols of public health organs. With free access, the exhibitions have reduced visiting hours and limited occupation. Visits will only be allowed through previous booking available at the Sesc São Paulo portal, through the link sescsp.org.br/ exposicoes .

 

A selection of the work of the emblematic Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar will be exhibited from 26 August at Sesc Pompeia. Curated by Moacir dos Anjos, the exhibition Lament of the Images brings together installations, posters and video projections - in a selection that comes from Jaar's four decades of activity.   These are large-scale physical works that present Jaar's way of thinking about the politics of images in the contemporary world, and reveal his reflections on forms of social control and the maintenance of inequalities. The works will be displayed in the Sesc Pompeia's living area.   Works such as Out of balance (Out of balance), 1989 installation composed of six light boxes with colored transparencies; One million points of light (One million points of light), video projection conceived in 2005; and, among the most recent, Chiaroscuro (Claro-escuro), a 2015 installation made from metal, acrylic and LED lamps.   In The sound of silence (The Sound of Silence), 2006, Jaar constructs a kind of theatre for a single image: South African photojournalist Kevin Carter's (1960-1994) striking record of a starving boy in Sudan being watched by a vulture. In the installation, the audience watches an eight-minute film that reflects on the various aspects behind an image.   Jaar often says that "images are not innocent". In You do not take a photograph. You make it. (You don't take a photograph. You make a photograph), from 2013, he highlights this phrase by the American photographer Ansel Adams (1902-1984) precisely to reinforce their importance. In Shadows (Shadows), from 2014, the artist dwells again on an image of pain and suffering. This time, a photograph made by Dutchman Koen Wessing (1942-2011) in Nicaragua in 1978, at the end of Somoza's authoritarian regime. In this installation, a sequence of other images anticipate the display of the powerful main photograph. A play of light and shadows highlights the silhouettes of two women throwing their arms in the air in a choreography of mourning and agony. There is no text, just as in the book Chili, September 1973, in which Wessing himself drew up a purely visual portrait of the military coup in the artist's homeland.   In Lament of the images (Lament of the images), from 2002, which names the exhibition, the artist reflects on the powers that control the making and circulation of images. The installation presents three short texts that introduce the political implications of the theme in various contexts and then temporarily blind the public with the strong light coming from a large screen in a dark room. This blinding serves as a metaphor for the processes of concealment of images and the consequent need to combat such violence.   Alfredo Jaar's production began in Chile and then in the United States between the end of the 1970s and the early 1980s, during the military dictatorship in his country. These are works that seek to uncover what is unintentionally unsaid or deliberately concealed in an authoritarian environment.   "His works do not force anyone to take positions and attitudes, but only offer understandings of the world that are different from those that reflect and feed the consensus and conventions that make life what it is at each moment. They are works that interpellate and affect others, even if it is not possible to know, beforehand, the effects of the affections they produce", comments Moacir dos Anjos.   After moving to the United States in 1982, Jaar's work began to focus on international power relations, and not only those with Chile as the protagonist or target. These works are concerned with demonstrating the continuity of colonial violence in the contemporary world, provoking the selective invisibility of peoples and populations.   Through the choice, contextualisation and intervention in photographs published - or hidden - on various platforms, he articulates situations as distinct and borderline as those that condition the lives of Rwandans suffering the effects of a civil war in their country, of gold miners in Serra Pelada, of Mexican immigrants trying to enter the United States clandestinely, of starving children in Sudan or of Nicaraguan peasants.   According to the exhibition curator, Jaar's production formulates, in an original and powerful way, a politics of images in the contemporary world. "He creates works that promote a reflection on the power of visual codes, notably those created and conveyed in the media, which both inform and blind their recipients; both emancipate and control bodies in the most distinct situations", reflects Moacir.   The public can visit the exhibition free of charge and in person, by previously booking online through the page of each unit on the Sesc São Paulo Portal or at sescsp.org.br/exposicoes. To ensure the recommended distance between visitors, spaces for the sessions are limited and vary according to the unit, always respecting the limit of up to five people per 100 m2 and the limited occupation of the total capacity of each location. The use of mask is mandatory during the entire period of stay in the unit.   Lament of the Imagesin Sesc Pompeia, is part of the network of partnerships of the 34th Bienal de São Paulo . It's dark but I sing which may be visited free of charge from September 4th to December 5th, 2021, at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, at Ibirapuera Park. Alfredo Jaar is one of the selected artists of this edition of the Biennale.   FULL LIST OF WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION AT SESC POMPEIA   Lament of the images, 2002 | Multimedia installation Geography = War10 light boxes with coloured slides, 100 metal barrels, water Off balance, 1989 | 6 light boxes with coloured devices Claro-escuro, 2015 | Neon YOU DON'T TAKE A PHOTOGRAPH. YOU MAKE A PHOTOGRAPH.Printed material, 2013 | Printed material Walking on Water6 double-sided light boxes, 12 coloured slides, 30 framed mirrors A million points of light2005 | projection and postcards OTHER PEOPLE THINKLightbox with b/w slides and printed material Shadows, 2014 | Multimedia installation The sound of silence, 2006 | Multimedia installation CULTURE = CAPITAL, 2011 | Néon Routes, Routes 2021 | Neon About Alfredo Jaar   Born in Santiago, Chile, Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect and filmmaker, and currently lives and works in New York City. In four decades of activity, his work has been shown extensively around the world. Jaar has participated in the Venice (1986, 2007, 2009, 2013), São Paulo (1987, 1989, 2010 and 2021) Biennales and the Documenta in Kassel (1987, 2002). Major solo exhibitions include the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Whitechapel, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. A major retrospective of his work took place in the summer of 2012 at three institutions in Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, Neue Gesellschaft fur bildende Kunst e.V. and Alte Nationalgalerie. In 2014, the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki hosted the most extensive retrospective of his career.   Alfredo Jaar has made more than 60 public interventions around the world. More than 50 monographic publications have been published on his work. He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1985 and a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2000. His work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Arte in Chicago, the Museum of Contamporay Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, Tate Modern in London, Centro Georges Pompidou in Paris, Centro Reina Sofia in Madrid, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlaebeck, and dozens of other institutions and private collections around the world.   About Moacir dos Anjos   Moacir dos Anjos is a researcher at the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation in Recife, where he coordinates the Politics of Art exhibition project. He was director of the Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães (2001-2006), Recife, and visiting researcher at the research centre Transnational Art, Identity and Nation, University of the Arts London (2008-2009). He was curator of the Brazilian pavilion (Artur Barrio) at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011) and curator of the 29th São Paulo Biennale (2010). He has curated retrospective or anthological exhibitions by Nelson Leirner, Rosângela Rennó, Cildo Meireles, Jac Leiner and Cao Guimarães, among several other artists.   He was also the curator of the group shows Cães sem Plumas (2014), at MAMAM, A Queda do Céu (2015), at Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Emergência (2017), at Galpão Bela Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Quem não luta tá morto. Arte democracia utopia (2018), at the Museu de Arte do Rio, Raça, classe e distribuição de corpos (2018) and Educação pela pedra (2019), both at the Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, among several others. He is the author of the books Local/Global. Art in Transit (Zahar, 2005), ArteBra Crítica (Automática and Martins Fontes, 2010) and Contradictory. Art, Globalization and Belonging (Combogó, 2017), as well as editor of Pertença, Caderno_SESC_Videobrasil 8, São Paulo (SESC and Videobrasil, 2012).   URGENT ACTION AGAINST HUNGER   Aiming to expand the network of solidarity to bring food to people in situations of social vulnerability, Sesc São Paulo, in partnership with Senac São Paulo, is holding a non-perishable food collection campaign at the Sesc and Senac units throughout the state. There are over 100 collection points in the capital, metropolitan region, countryside and coast. The donations are distributed to social institutions that are partners of Mesa Brasil Sesc, which give the items to 120,000 assisted families. Urgent Action Against Hunger is an initiative of Sesc São Paulo, through Mesa Brasil Sesc, a programme created by the institution 26 years ago that seeks food where there is a surplus to distribute to places that are lacking. What to donate: non-perishable foods such as rice, beans, powdered milk, oil, cornmeal, canned sardines, pasta, tomato sauce, cornmeal and cassava flour. Sesc makes the population aware of the importance of responsible donation, with quality items and within the validity period. Learn more   MESA BRASIL SESC SÃO PAULO    In parallel with the Urgent Action Against Hunger campaign, the solidarity network that brings together donor companies and registered social institutions continues its activities, searching where there is surplus and delivering to places where there is a lack, contributing to the reduction of food insecurity for children, young people, adults and the elderly and reducing food waste.    Today, 19 Sesc units in the state - in the capital, interior and coast - operate Mesa Brasil. The teams responsible for the daily collection and delivery of food were specially trained in Covid-19 prevention protocols, with all the information and individual and collective protection equipment necessary to prevent contagion.    Learn+ sescsp.org.br/ mesabrasil   + Visual Arts on SescTV In August, SescTV premieres a special program dedicated to the Brazilian visual arts, highlighting the series "Arteries", an unprecedented production directed by Helena Bagnoli and Henk Nieman, of 26 episodes, with artists from various generations and regions of the country presenting their concerns and works. In each episode, a contemporary artist is portrayed and four of them participate in this edition of Frestas - Arts Triennial 2020/2021. They are: Denilson Baniwa, Paulo Nazareth, Jaider Esbell and Dalton Paula. The programme premieres on the channel on 27 August.   + Arteries The series of 26 minidocumentaries that SescTV premieres in August makes a mapping of contemporary artists, among Afro-Brazilians, indigenous and LGBTQI+ as protagonists. Directed by Helena Bagnoli and Henk Nieman, the production reveals the strength of the manifestations originating in Brazil's deepest roots, with artists from various generations and regions of the country. "Arteries" premieres on 27 February and will remain on air until February 2022. With statements from the artists and images of the works, their interaction with the cities and their surroundings, the series shows the dialogue between tradition and modernity. All the episodes shown on TV are also available on the channel's website for the public to watch or re-watch whenever they want. Just access sesctv.org.br and check it out for free, with no need to register   Service:   Lament of the Images - Alfredo Jaar Venue: Sesc Pompeia Curator: Moacir dos Anjos Exhibition period: 26 August 2021 to 5 December 2021 Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, from 2pm to 8pm. Saturday, Sunday and public holidays, from 11.30am to 5.30pm. Scheduling visits: www.sescsp.org.br/exposicoes Indicative rating: Free Free Sesc Pompeia - Rua Clélia, 93. We do not have parking facilities. For more information, access the portal: sescsp.org.br/pompeia Join us!