Alfredo Jaar

Alfredo Jaar

Alfredo Jaar

I am interested in temporary art. I came across the artist Alfredo Jaar,  Having read about his various projects,  I thought his project The skoghall Kontsall project was ingenious. He did a similar project in Japan. The skoghall Kontsall  project was conducted in a community in Sweden,  concerned with building a space for art and culture where there was none. He built a museum from paper and timber from the local mill, the town had never had a museum before and did not care for having one. The museum was erected by twelve local artists, was officially open by the towns mayor and many local people cane to the opening. Jaar decided that the museum was to exist for one day only. Before the museum was to be set alight the town people begged him not to burn it down.  Seven years later they invited Jaar back, not as an artist but as an architect, to design a museum. The museum will open in 2013.

Alfredo Jaar- The Skoghall Kontsall  Project, Sweden

Jaar believes that art should be utilized to solve world or local issues. He is inspired by communities and it is the communities that anchors his work. Jaar has had a forty year career and has built up a vast collection of projects but the interesting thing about his work is that each and every one of his project is different, his work is inspired and focused  by location and the communities at hand. He shares an interest in promoting dialogue and social change. 

''I am an architect making art, and I use the methodology of the architect, meaning that I react to a certain space and a certain situation. My works are site specific and react to a given community, a given space or a given situation. So I react not only to a physical space, as most artists do, but I see that space as a social space, as a cultural space, as a political space. That’s what I do.'' Alfredo Jaar

://www.alfredojaar.net/