Alfredo Jaar and the Love for Revolution

di admin
5 Novembre 2013

Alfredo Jaar, M’illumino d’immenso, 2009, Neon, 46 x 94 x 5 cm. Courtesy of the artist, New York and Galleria Lia Rumma, Milano

Fondazione Merz, Turin (TORINO)

Fondazione Merz presents Alfredo Jaar’s exhibition Abbiamo amato tanto la rivoluzione (We loved it so much, the revolution), curated by Claudia Gioia. Specifically created for this exhibition, Alfredo Jaar’s new project focuses on the idea of reflection (as both reproduction of images and thought or consideration) in particular with reference to his interest in the relation between culture and democratic life. He questions the sense of memory and political participation in the Sixties and Seventies and he does so not as an act of commemoration, but rather to constantly engage in promoting culture as a decisive factor for change.

The exhibition, consisting of about 60 artworks, starts with a major installation made of millions of pieces of broken glass and mirror that cover most of the main exhibition space. As viewers walk on this reflecting surface of debris, they also move along the space of memory, and while engaged in self-reflection, they are invited to think over some difficult moments of our collective history. The remains of the lessons of history become the ground for hope and cultural rebirth.

In a second space, the artist orchestrates a dialogue with a 1970 work by Mario Merz titled Sciopero generale azione politica relativa proclamata relativamente all’arte, bringing it to our present times through a poetic and nostalgic mise-en-scene.

Some walls of the Fondazione will be entirely covered by Alfredo Jaar’s works, from those dating back to the Seventies to others specifically created for this exhibition. His works dedicated to Antonio Gramsci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Giuseppe Ungaretti, together with those produced during the dictatorship in Chile and the ones promoting political awareness will merge with the works by artists who have never ceased to question the world such as Mario Merz but also Alighiero Boetti, Luis Camnitzer, Valie Export, Hans Haacke, On Kawara, Yves Klein, Joseph Kosuth, Piero Manzoni, Fabio Mauri, Cildo Meireles, Yoko Ono, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gerhard Richter, Nancy Spero and Lawrence Weiner.

Alfredo Jaar (Santiago del Chile, 1956) is an artist, architect and filmmaker. His work has been shown extensively around the world. Simultaneous to his exhibition at the Fondazione Merz, the artist has been selected for the upcoming edition of Torino’s Luci d’Artista that will open November 1. The artist has created a permanent work for the façade of the Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino.

Artists: Alfredo Jaar

Open: Tuesday, 05 November 2013
    Close: Sunday, 02 February 2014
    Address: Fondazione Merz, via Limone 24, 10141 Turin
    Mail: info@fondazionemerz.org
    Phone: +39 011 197 194 37
    Web: Fondazione Merz
    Opening hour: Tue-Sun | 11am-7pm
    Closing day: Mon
    Admission: € 5.00 | € 3.50
    Photo credits: 1. Alfredo Jaar, M’illumino d’immenso, 2009, Neon, 46 x 94 x 5 cm. Courtesy of the artist, New York and Galleria Lia Rumma, Milano; Alfredo Jaar, PPP, 2013, Courtesy of the artist, New York and Galleria Lia Rumma, Milano; 2. Alfredo Jaar, M’illumino d’immenso, 2009, Neon, 46 x 94 x 5 cm. Courtesy of the artist, New York and Galleria Lia Rumma, Milano