THE TEMPTATION TO EXIST: Exhibition walkthrough with Alfredo Jaar and Carlos Basualdo

14 May 2022 
  • Galerie Lelong & Co., New York is pleased to hold an exhibition walkthrough of Alfredo Jaar's solo exhibition THE TEMPTATION...

    Galerie Lelong & Co., New York is pleased to hold an exhibition walkthrough of Alfredo Jaar's solo exhibition THE TEMPTATION TO EXIST, with the artist and Carlos Basualdo, the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

    The exhibition is constructed in two moments with two major installations, both presented in the U.S. for the first time. In the gallery’s main space, an immersive experience is created with a large, red neon work. The words of the stoic philosopher Seneca take center stage—"WHAT NEED IS THERE TO WEEP OVER PARTS OF LIFE? THE WHOLE OF IT CALLS FOR TEARS.” Jaar’s second installation in the exhibition fills the second, smaller gallery space with more than 100 works from a diverse group of artists as well as a small selection of his own works. Here, the artist has tried to create what he calls “a space of resistance, a space of hope.” A newly commissioned video work by the artist, 06.01.2020 18.39 (2022), is concurrently on view in the Whitney Biennial.

    The exhibition walkthrough will be streamed on Instagram "LIVE" and recorded. The video will be made available on our website at a later date.

    THE TEMPTATION TO EXIST will be on view in the gallery from May 13 to June 25, 2022.

  •

  • About the Speakers

    Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect, and filmmaker. Using photography, sculpture, and film, Jaar has consistently provoked, questioned, and searched...
    Photograph by Jee Eun Esther Jang.

    Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect, and filmmaker. Using photography, sculpture, and film, Jaar has consistently provoked, questioned, and searched for ways to heighten our consciousness about issues often forgotten or suppressed in the international sphere, while not relinquishing art’s formal and aesthetic power. Over his career, Jaar has explored significant political and social issues including genocide, the displacement of refugees across borders, and the balance of power between developing and industrialized nations.

    An ongoing solo museum exhibition Alfredo Jaar: The Structure of Images, is held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois (through July 3, 2022).

    In addition to the Whitney Biennial 2022, the artist is participating in ongoing institutional exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany; La Bienal de Artes Mediales de Santiago, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; and Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy. In 2019, the artist was awarded the 11th Hiroshima Art Prize and his solo exhibition will be held in 2023. The Japanese city gives the award every three years to an artist who has contributed throughout their career with peace construction. Jaar is the only artist to have received a McArthur Fellowship, the Hiroshima Peace Prize, and the Hasselblad Award.

    Jaar’s work has been shown extensively around the world. He has participated in the Biennales of Venice, Italy (1986, 2007, 2009, 2013); São Paulo, Brazil (1987, 1989, 2010, 2021); and Documenta, Germany (1987, 2002). In 2020, the artist was awarded the 40th edition of the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography, considered the most prestigious photography prize in the world.⁠ Other surveys of his work have taken place at the Musée Cantonal des Beaux Arts, Lausanne, France; Hangar Bicocca, Milan, Italy; Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlinische Galerie and Neue Gesellschaft fur bildende Kunst e.V., Berlin, Germany; Rencontres d’Arles, France; and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland. His work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles Museum of Art, California; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Tate Modern, London, UK; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark; M+, Hong Kong; and dozens of other institutions worldwide.

    Jaar was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1956 and has been based in New York City since 1982.

  • Carlos Basualdo is the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art....
    Photograph by Joseph Hu.

    Carlos Basualdo is the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He was the lead organizer of “Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens” that represented the USA at the 2007 Venice Biennale and was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. In 2010 he organized a survey exhibition of the work of Michelangelo Pistoletto. In 2012 he organized (with Erica Battle) “Dancing Around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg and Duchamp”. He was responsible for “Embracing the Contemporary: The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Collection” in 2016 and “Bruce Nauman, Contrapposto Studies” in 2017. In 2021 he co-curated “Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies” with Caroline Bourgeois at the Punta della Dogana, and “Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror,” a survey of Jasper Johns with Scott Rothkopf at both the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

    He was part of the curatorial teams for Documenta11, the 50th Venice Biennale and conceived and curated “Tropicalia: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture,” which traveled from the MCA Chicago to the Barbican Gallery in London as well as the Bronx Museum in New York and the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro. From 2010 until 2013 he worked as Curator at Large at MAXXI Arte, in Rome, Italy.