Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

The Artist of the Future

Image caption
ALFREDO JAAR

The Artist of the Future

  • 2005
  • Mounting of eight digital copies on paper in black lacquered frame
  • 137 x 137 x 4 cm
  • Edition 1/6
  • Cat. F_90
  • Acquired in 2006
By:
Beatriz Herráez

The Artist of the Future (2005) is a work in which Alfredo Jaar arranges a sequence of eight images in a grid composition, showing a child forming a cylindrical object and holding a sharp instrument. In the last photograph of the series, the boy looks at the camera and makes visual contact with the viewer. This is an ambiguous image where it is difficult to establish the purpose of the action carried out; it seems just to be a game, but the boy is copying the way of performing some manual task or other.

However, the title The Artist of the Future suggests that it is a task that artists carry out in their workshops. If we contrast these shots with other known pieces of Alfredo Jaar, which tend to contain a direct and critical reflection on the system of work in conditions of exploitation, the piece can be read on different, contradictory levels. Given the many precarious situations depicted by Jaar in his pieces, The Artist of the Future generates a strong feeling of alienation in anybody who is familiar with his output and his views on the current neo-liberal economic model. It is a project that takes a critical look at conflicts and situations of extreme inequality, such as the use of child labour in the mines of Brazil, the genocide in Rwanda and the toxic waste sent to Nigeria by the West.

This leads to multiple meanings in the sequence, supported by the irony that can be deduced from its title: is it really possible to believe that the first option for this boy working away is to someday become an artist?

Beatriz Herráez

 
By:
Roberto Díaz
Alfredo Jaar
Santiago de Chile 1956

Alfredo Jaar studied filmmaking at the Chilean North-American Institute of Culture and Architecture at the University of Chile (1981). Subsequently, in 1982, differences with Pinochet’s regime led him to move to New York, where he has lived ever since, thanks to the Pacific Foundation Grant. He also works with videos, urban interventions and installations, but photography is his main means of expression and weapon of political dissent. Embracing critical awareness and a social role for artists, he has developed an aesthetic of resistance, reflecting on the human condition and the problems of social and geopolitical crises. In particular, he stresses the role of images in today’s society, in view of the general desensitisation resulting from media saturation, their limitations when covering great tragedies and the political control to which they are subject. One of his most outstanding works is The Rwanda Project (1994-2000), produced in protest at the lack of media cover and the silence of the international community regarding the Rwanda genocide, which led to a million deaths.

In addition to his numerous public interventions, Jaar has exhibited on the international circuit including the Venice Bienniale (1986, 2007, 2009 and 2013), São Paulo (1987, 1989 and 2010), Sydney (1990) and Documenta 8 & 12 (Kassel, Germany, 1987 & 2002). His work has also been exhibited at leading international venues such as the New Museum (New York, 1992); the Whitechapel Art Gallery (London, 1992); the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, USA, 1992); the Moderna Museet (Stockholm, 1994); the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma (Rome, 2005); the Hangar Bicocca (Milan, Italy, 2008); the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 2011). A retrospective was held at the Berlinische Galerie, the NGBK and the Alte Nationalgalerie (Berlin, 2012); and another major retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Helsinki, 2014) and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2015).

Jaar was awarded the Guggenheim Grant in 1985 and the Chile National Award for Plastic Arts in 2013.

Roberto Díaz

 
«Selection of Works by Alfredo Jaar», Galería Patricia Ready (Santiago de Compostela, 2010). «(UN)COMMON VALUES. Two Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art», National Bank of Belgium (Brussels, 2022).
Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 2.