Alfredo Jaar Quotes

• Our society is blind. We have lost our ability to be affected by imagery.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Our Society, Blind, Lost

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• I think that all art is socially conscious. There is no alternative. Whatever we produce contains a political and social statement. There's no way to avoid that, unless it is pure decoration. But even pure decoration has also some value because you can read pure decoration as a way to ignore the reality that is around us, saying, "Well, I'm not interested. I just like to paint this wall blue.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Art, Wall, Reality

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Reality cannot be photographed or represented. We can only create a new reality. And my dilemma is how to make art out of a reality that most of us would rather ignore. How do you make art when the world is in such a state? My answer has been to make mistakes, but when I can, to choose them. We are all guilt victims choosing mistakes, and as Godard said, the very definition of the human condition is in the mise-en-scéne itself.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Art, Mistake, Reality

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• I follow many tragedies around the world. At one point I [will] feel like I've accumulated an enormous amount of information, a critical mass amount of information, and I feel like acting - reacting. My manifesto has always been the same: I cannot act in the world before understanding the world. I will not move a finger. I will not come up with any ideas - nothing - until I actually understand what is happening.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Moving, Understanding, Tragedy

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• We are the result of the stimulus we receive.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Results, Stimulus

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• My work is always based on reality. I'm not an artist that creates works of fiction. I'm not an artist who is in my studio inventing things out of my imagination - everything is based on reality, on real facts.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Real, Artist, Imagination

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• For me, what was important was to record everything I saw around me, and to do this as methodically as possible. In these circumstances a good photograph is a picture that comes as close as possible to reality. But the camera never manages to record what your eyes see, or what you feel at the moment. The camera always creates a new reality.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Eye, Reality, Important

  Alfredo Jaar, Centre d'Art Santa Mònica (Barcelona, Spain), Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea (San Sebastián, Spain) (1998). “Let there be light: the Rwanda Project 1994-1998”, Distributed Art Pub Inc

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• I am suspicious and disillusioned about the uses and misuses of photography in the art world, the press, and the world of entertainment. And to make things more complicated, I don't think that the general public is well educated regarding images. Generally we are taught how to read, but we are not taught how to look.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Photography, Art, Thinking

  "The Aesthetics of Witnessing: A Conversation with Alfredo Jaar". Art Journal Interview with Patricia C. Philips, www.publicart.ie. 2005.

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• As we all know, the objective and mission of the photojournalist is to show us the reality of the world. And in order to capture that reality, they go to dangerous and tragic places at the expense of their lives. I see them as the conscience of our humanity; they represent for me what is left of our humanity.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Reality, Order, Humanity

  Interview, brooklynrail.org. April 6, 2009.

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• America is our continent. You feel in the daily language that Americans use the word "America" to erase the rest of the continent from the map. And, of course, the language is clearly a reflection of the geopolitical reality: the domination of the United States over the rest of the continent.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Reflection, Reality, Language

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I think I'm a journalist in one sense - I want to communicate to people about certain things that are happening around us, around the world, close or far. In order to transform this information into art you have to add poetry. It's essential.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Art, Thinking, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Journalistic information and presentation actually discourage action... we think we know, and because we think we know, we think we care. But it stops there.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Thinking, Care, Information

  Alfredo Jaar, Willie Avon Drake, Anderson Gallery, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (1991). “Alfredo Jaar: geography”, Virginia Commonwealth Univ

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• Images have an advanced religion; they bury history.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Alfredo Jaar, Centre d'Art Santa Mònica (Barcelona, Spain), Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea (San Sebastián, Spain) (1998). “Let there be light: the Rwanda Project 1994-1998”, Distributed Art Pub Inc

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• Nowadays I see my work being used, without my permission, as if it was an attack against the Trump regime. People want to say, "No! That's not my America, not the America I know." I'm honored - it's just not me. But as we were saying before, the artist loses control.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Artist, People, Honored

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• How many languages do we really speak?

  Alfredo Jaar

  Language, Speak

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• Certainly when you do a work for a public space, you lose control.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I remember her eyes. The eyes of Gutete Emerita.

  Alfredo Jaar

  Eye, Her Eyes, Remember

  Alfredo Jaar, Centre d'Art Santa Mònica (Barcelona, Spain), Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea (San Sebastián, Spain) (1998). “Let there be light: the Rwanda Project 1994-1998”, Distributed Art Pub Inc

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