30 June – 21 July 2005
VISITING PROFESSOR ALFREDO JAAR
Applications for the course close 15 April 2005
The Advanced Course in Visual Arts is an intensive specialisation course for young artists from around the world. Directed by Annie Ratti since 1995, it is conceived as a workshop for artistic and theoretical experimentation led by internationally prominent artists.
Curator of the The Advanced Course in Visual Arts 2005 is Roberto Pinto and the coordinator is Anna Daneri.
The Visiting Professor for this eleventh edition of the course will be Alfredo Jaar. The artist, architect and film-maker was born in Santiago in Chile in 1956, he has lived in New York since 1982 and his work faces themes which are of great urgency and relevance and which are normally excluded from publicly available information.
The course will be held between June 30th and July 21st 2005 in the ex-Ticosa in Como, with the support of the Comune di Como.
The program is for 25 young artists, who will be selected by a panel of experts on the basis of the applications received. The course will consist of daily workshop activity with Alfredo Jaar, theoretical study with the internal curator Roberto Pinto and seminars with some of the key players of the international cultural scene.
Alfredo Jaar has always maintained his commitment as an artist in a social context, proposing a comparison of the profound contradictions of our world. During the workshop ‘The aesthetics of resistance‘ he will explore the methods through which artistic practice can approach and connect itself to contemporary realities in new and creative ways. New strategies of presentation and re-presentation will be investigated, trying to create new models for intervention, particularly in public spaces.
The course will conclude with two shows – one by the artist and one by the young participants of the course- to be held in Como from June 21st to September 4th 2005 and will be documented in a bilingual catalogue published by Charta.
The Advanced Course in Visual Arts is free. Participants must cover the costs of their stay in Como. The application, together with documentation of the applicant’s work must be sent to the Fondazione Antonio Ratti by April 15th 2005 (date of posting).
Visiting Professors of the past editions have been: Joseph Kosuth (1995), John Armleder (1996), Allan Kaprow (1997), Hamish Fulton (1998), Haim Steinbach (1999), Ilya Kabakov (2000), Marina Abramovic (2001), Giulio Paolini (2002), Richard Nonas (2003), Jimmie Durham (2004).
Between 1994 and 1998 Alfredo Jaar worked on a project on the genocide in Rwanda and has addressed situations of political oppression and social marginalisation through his photographic and installation work.
Recently he has been involved in the creation of a series of public projects for the planning and construction of art spaces underlining their absence and their necessity in our lives. His works always take a strongly critical position in relation to the overwhelming presence of images and of the anaesthesia caused by an excess of communication.
The artist’s works are shown in some of the most important international museums of contemporary art and at major exhibiting events such as the biennials of Paris (1982), Venice (1986), Sao Paulo (1987), Johannesburg, Sydney (1990), Istanbul and Kwangju (1995), Documenta 8 (1987) and Documenta 11 (2002) in Kassel.
Address: Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Lungo Lario Trento 9, 22100 Como, Italy
For application forms: Visit our web site: http://www.fondazioneratti.org or contact Anna Daneri, tel +39 031233213 e-mail [email protected]
Press Office: Ilaria Gianoli, mob. +39-3336317344, e-mail [email protected]
image: Alfredo Jaar, Valle del Matador, Tijuana – San Diego, Mexixo USA border, October 14, 2000
