Alfredo Jaar at Kiasma

"Tonight No Poetry Will Serve", at Kiasma, is an exhibition dedicated to the work of one of the most uncompromising, compelling, and innovative artists working today.

Presented on two floors at Kiasma, the retrospective show comprises more than 40 works from 1974–2014, including such ground-breaking works as Lament of Images, The Silence of Nduwayezu and The Sound of Silence.

For this exhibition Kiasma also re-created One Million Passports, Jaar’s historic landmark work shown for the first time in Helsinki in 1995.

Born in Chile in 1956, Alfredo Jaar has lived in New York since 1982. He is an artist, architect and filmmaker whose installations and public interventions have earned him international acclaim throughout the world.

The title of the exhibition, "Tonight No Poetry Will Serve", is the title of the poem by the late American writer Adrienne Rich (1929-2012), an important source of inspiration for the artist.

Alfredo Jaar, The Silence of Nduwayezu, 1997, 1 million slides, light table, magnifiers, illuminated wall text. Photo Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Alfredo Jaar, The Sound of Silence, 2006, wood structure, aluminium, fluorescent tubes, LED lights, flash lights, tripods, video projection. Software design: Ravi Rajan. Photo Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Alfredo Jaa, "Tonight no poetry will serve", installation view. Photo Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Alfredo Jaar, Untitled (Water), 1990, 6 double-sided light boxes with 12 colour transparencies, 30 mirrors. Photo Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Alfredo Jaar, Dear Markus, 2011-2014, text on billboard. Photo Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Alfredo Jaar, A Hundred Times Nguyen, 1994, 25 pigment prints on Innova paper. Photo Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Alfredo Jaar, One Million Finnish Passports, 1975-2014, printed matter. Photo Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Alfredo Jaar, Untitled (Newsweek), 1994, 17 C-prints. Photo Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Alfredo Jaar, Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness, 1995, neon. Photo Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

Left: Alfredo Jaar, Six Seconds, 2000 Right:Alfredo Jaar, Magician, 1979

Alfredo Jaar. Photo Finnish National Gallery / Petri Virtanen

until September 7, 2014
Alfredo Jaar
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve
curated by Pirkko Siitari
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma
Mannerheiminaukio 2
Helsinki, Finland

Alfredo Jaar at Kiasma

"Tonight No Poetry Will Serve", at Kiasma, is an exhibition dedicated to the work of one of the most uncompromising, compelling, and innovative artists working today.

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