1

NATIONAL COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

Fine Art, Media

The Value of Art in highlighting Global Injustice in an Image

Saturated Society – An examination of Alfredo Jaar’s Rwanda

Project.

Jonathan Myers

Submitted to the School of Visual Culture in Candidacy for the Degree of

BA (Hons)

2016

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NATIONAL COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

School of Visual Culture

I declare that this thesis is all my own work and that all sources have been

fully acknowledged.

Signed:

Date:

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Contents

Illustrations 4

Introduction 5

Chapter One

1.1 An introduction to Alfredo Jaar. 6

1.2 A short description of Installation and Conceptual Art. 7

1.3 A brief introduction to Socially Engaged Art. 8

Chapter Two

2.1 A brief history of Rwanda, post-World War 1. 11

2.2 The Rwanda Project (1994-2000). 13

2.3 Rwanda, Rwanda (1994). 13

2.4 Untitled - Newsweek (1995). 15

2.5 Real Pictures (1996). 16

2.6 The eyes of Gutete Emerita (1996). 17

Chapter Three

3.1 Lament of the Images (2002). 18

3.2 The Privatisation of Images. 20

Conclusion 23

Bibliography 25

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Illustrations

Figure 1. Jaar, Alfredo. “Newsweek”. 2012. 15

Figure 2. Jaar, Alfredo. “Newsweek”. 2012. 15

Figure 3. Jaar, Alfredo. “Newsweek”. 2012. 16

Figure 4. Jaar, Alfredo. “Real Pictures”. 2012. 16

Figure 5. Jaar, Alfredo. “The Eyes of Gutete Emerita”. 2012. 16

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Introduction

In this essay I will be giving a short introduction into installation art and

conceptual art and how they can be a way to highlight global injustice in

today’s world. I will explore Alfredo Jaar’s Rwanda Project 1994 – 2000

which developed as a result of his visit to Rwanda following the aftermath

of the genocide in 1994, where it is estimated that nearly one million

people had died. Contemporary society has become saturated with images

and media files which are shared online through social media websites and

instant messaging apps while real and credible news can become tainted

by disinformation and amateur journalism. I will examine how Alfredo

Jaar presented an alternative representation to the dominant media imagery

of the genocide, his art work highlighting global injustice in a word

saturated with imagery.

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Chapter One.

In this chapter, I will introduce the artist then I will then outline the

concepts behind installation art and conceptual art, where the form of

Alfredo Jaar's work can be situated. Lastly I will give a brief insight into

the field of socially engaged art, and how it is a practice that positions

social and political issues at its core with reference to artists Rick Lowe,

Kristof Wodiczko, Jeremy Deller and What’s the Story? Collective 2007 –

2011.

1.1. An introduction to Alfredo Jaar

Alfredo Jaar is a Chilean born artist. He attended Instituto Chileno-

Norteamericano de Cultura, Santiago in 1979 and Universidad de Chile,

Santiago in 1981. He is currently based in New York City in the United

States. Alfredo Jaar works in film, photography, installation art and

community-based projects. His work crosses many boundaries and social

issues, from famine, Americas hegemony, border issues and of course, his

work in relation to the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Alfredo Jaar’s artistic

practice takes the form of written statements, declarations, definitions and

invitations.

My interest in Alfredo Jaar arose when I visited Berlin in 2011. Alfredo

Jaar had work showing at, Kultur, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin,

Germany, while I was attending a conference on socially engaged art,

where I presented past work from my involvement in a collective known

as the What’s The story? Collective. During this trip, I personally became

drawn to Alfredo Jaar, not just because of the way in which his work

highlighted certain issues, but also because of the way he situated and

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presented it in a gallery space. The exhibition, which mainly took the form

of installation, it was beautifully upsetting, the emotional impact, feeling

justified and necessary without the need for images depicting death and

war i.e. shock images.

1.2. A short description of Installation and Conceptual Art.

Installation art is defined as a broad term applied to a range of

arts practice which involves the installation or configuration of

objects in a space, where the totality of objects and space

comprise the artwork…. (IMMA, 2015)

An artist whose practice could be described as installation art is Carl

Andre and his work Equivalents (1966), when removed from the larger

work it is known as Equivalent viii (1972) commonly known as Bricks.

This work consisted of 120 bricks, set out in a formation on the ground,

layered as two levels with no adhesive. His work is sculptural, minimalists

piece situated as an installation. It was purchased by the Tate Modern in

London, received much criticism and many angry letters before it went on

show. When the exhibition opened in 1972, although a controversial show,

it brought in an audience that was radically mixed in reaction. His work is

a sculptural, minimalist piece situated as an installation. Carl Andre is one

of the founders of minimalism. Carl Andre seems to be concerned with

space and raw material in their simplest form. In an interview on the

financial times website with Julie Belcove, Carl Andre said ‘useless

construction, and that is what sculpture was’. His work represented his life

and who he was, it had no ‘secret meaning’ (Ft, 2013). but like much

conceptual art, his work required the viewer to think beyond what as

placed in the gallery.

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Conceptual art refers to a diverse range of artistic practice from

the late 1960s to the early 1970s, where emphasis was placed

on the concept or idea rather than the physical art object…

…Artists sought the means to think beyond the medium-

specific aspects of traditional art forms, such as originality,

style, expression, craft, permanence, decoration and display…

(IMMA, 2015).

Conceptual art traced back to the 1960’s, but also finds its roots in

Dadaism, which was a literary and artistic movement born in Europe at a

time when the horror of the first world war was going on. A group of

artists, writers and intellectuals were upset that modern European society

would allow the war to have happened so they protested by not

participating in art and the art world. A very well-known example from

this time is Marcel Duchamp’s fountain (1917) which was used, not for its

practical use but as a means to challenge and raise many questions. What

is art? Who decides what art is? These questions came to the surface when

the Society for Independent Artists (to which Duchamp was a founder and

member) when he refused to show the Fountain (1917) at the Grand

central Palace on the opening night in 1917. While dadaism can be seen

historically as key to conceptual and installation art history, it is also cited

as an important movement of influence to socially engaged art.

1.3. A Brief Introduction of Socially Engaged Art.

The National College of Art and Design runs an MA in socially

engaged art, describing it as ‘an artistic practice that requires a meaningful

interaction with communities of place and/or interest and with broader

social or political intentions at its core’ (NCAD, 2015). An example of

socially engaged art is Rick Lowe’s work, Project Row Houses (1993)

which is based in Houston’s Northern Third Ward in the United Sates.

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Project Row Houses (1993) was established to help revitalize the

community that was and is ‘plagued by severe unemployment, early

pregnancy, crumbling services and drug trafficking’ (Creative Time.

2013). Project Row Houses (1993) features in events organised by

Creative Time, an organisation that engages and funds socially engaged art

projects and works based on three core values ‘art matters, artist’s voices

are important in shaping society, and public spaces are places for creative

and free expression’ (Creative Time. 2015). Project Row Houses (1993) is

just over two decades old. It is comprised of 22 houses, which houses a

gallery, office space including exhibition space and residency space, a

park and low-income residential and commercial spaces. It also provides

residential spaces for young mothers and residency space for artists. Rick

Lowe uses his strength in art to create a community of place who can

participate, discuss, learn and bring about change.

Prior to my entry into NCAD, I was part of was What’s the Story?

Collective (2007 – 2011), a project that could also be described as socially

engaged art. The collective was an interdisciplinary group consisting of an

artist, young adults and a youth worker based in Rialto, Dublin. The

collective’s work was based on a collection of anonymous stories about

power and powerlessness and took the form of live reading events

involving An Gardaí Siochana, a six-week residency and exhibition, and

the publication of a 24-page newspaper titled Policing Dialogues Review,

which gave personal and analytical perspectives on the project. We also

developed a training programme which is to be implemented as part of the

induction course for future trainee Gardaí allocated to the Dublin South

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Central division. For me, this is a good example of socially engaged art

practice in Ireland, which was led by the participants, highly political and

resulting in agreements about policing specific neighbourhoods.

As with Project Row Houses (1993) and What’s the Story? Collective

(2007 – 2011), artists such as Krzysztof Wodizcko and Jeremy Deller take

on political and social issues in their work. Wodizcko’s public projection

work, gives a voice to those who have been pushed to the margins of

society like war veterans, homeless people and people of violence,

examples: Hiroshima Projection (1999), Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran

Projection (2012) and the Homeless Project (1988). While Jeremy

Deller’s work Conversations about Iraq (2009) used a burnt out car to

attract discussion about the Iraq war. The work travelled across the United

States and was accompanied by an Iraqi citizen and an enlisted American

Soldier. Again, art, dialogue, place and space, come together under what is

often described as socially engaged art. It is my opinion that the work of

Alfredo Jaar and in particular the Rwanda Project (1994 – 2000) can be

described as socially engaged and conceptual art while also taking the

form of installation art.

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Chapter Two

In this chapter I will introduce the context of Rwanda and the Rwanda

genocide. I will introduce five art works, that form part of the Rwanda

Project (1994 – 2000). The Projects will range from 1994 to 1996 starting

with Signs of Life (1994), then onto Rwanda Rwanda (1994), Real Pictures

(1996), Newsweek (1996) and The Eyes of Gutete Emerita (1996).

2.1. A brief history of Rwanda, post-World War 1.

During the First World War Germany lost possession of Rwanda and

the territory was then placed under Belgian administration. In the 1950s a

time of decolonisation, tensions increased in Rwanda. On one side were

the Hutu majority gaining momentum and resisting the democratisation

was the Tutsi establishment on the other. In 1959 there was a violent

uprising by the Hutu’s which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.

Thousands of people were displaced and fled to the neighbouring

countries. History states this was the start of the Hutu peasant Revolution

lasting three years and leading to the end of Tutsi rule and increased ethnic

tensions. Rwanda gained independence in 1962.

Following independence, exiled people in neighbouring countries staged

attacks on the Hutu government leading to retaliatory attacks from the

Hutu government. This violence lead to a large number of refugees. On

October 1, 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Force (A political and military

group founded in Uganda, comprising mainly of exiled Tutsis) launched a

major attack on Rwanda with 7,000 fighters. The government label all

Tutsi people accomplices using their propaganda machine. Through the

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use of the radio, they spread rumours leading to increased ethnic tensions

amongst the population. In 1993 a peace treaty was signed. Soon after the

signing of the treaty, evidence emerged that elements of the Hutu majority

were planning a campaign to exterminate Tutsi people and moderate

Hutus.

On 6 April 1994, a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi

was shot down. On that same day killings started in Rwanda, initiated by

the presidential guard of the killings of Tutsi people. Roadblocks were

established by Hutu militia and assisted by military personnel to identify

Tutsi people. The ethnic killings were compounded by TV and radio in

Rwanda which blamed the Rwandan Patriotic Force (RPF) for the plane

crash that killed both the President of Rwanda and the President of

Burundi. Following the death of the president, assassinations of both Hutu

and Tutsi leaders took place. This continued with several weeks of violent

massacres against mainly Tutsi and moderate Hutu people. A depleted

United Nations force, inaction by the United Nations Security Council lead

to many more deaths and a prolonged genocide. On 22 June 1994 the

French led force authorized by the United Nations Security Council

mounted a humanitarian mission. Killings in Rwanda continued until July

4 1994 when the Rwandan Patriotic Force took military control of the

entire territory of Rwanda. It is now estimated that nearly 1,000,000

people were killed in the genocide and between ‘150,000 and 250,000

women were also raped’ (Un.org, 2015). Following the genocide during

the trials in the mid to late 90s, the court also tried three media owners

accused of using their respective media to incite hatred and genocide. The

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court convicted a suspect for rape as a crime against humanity and a crime

of genocide, the first international court to do so.

2.2 Rwanda Project (1994-2000).

In 1994 Alfredo Jaar visited Rwanda. He travelled to the capital Kigali.

The city of Kigali was the epicentre of the genocide. Jaar began to collect

stories from people. While collecting these stories he came across an old

post office, the post office still had some postcards in stock so Alfredo Jaar

bought up the remaining postcards, 200 or so in total. The postcards

showed images of Akagera National Park which were taken by tourists in

Rwanda. Using these postcards Jaar wrote the names of the survivors on

the postcards like so:

JYAMIYA MUHAWENIMAWA

IS STILL ALIVE!

EMANUEL RUCOGOZA

IS STILL ALIVE!

CARITAS NAMAZURU

IS STILL ALIVE! (Signs of Life. 1994)

Alfredo Jaar then posted the postcards to a number of his friends and

colleagues from a post office in Uganda on his way out, as the postal

service in Rwanda was not in service this was the beginning of a piece of

work that would become known as Signs of Life, (1994). Where Jaar was

finding immediate ways to highlight the war that he was witnessing.

2.3 Rwanda, Rwanda (1994)

In Rwanda Jaar photographed everything wherever he went. This lead

to a collection of over 3000 photographs at the end of his trip. While Jaar

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felt it was important to record everything in this way, he also felt

compelled to capture the words and stories of people he met;

For me, what was important was to record everything I saw

around me, and to do this as methodically as possible. In their

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. I have always been

concerned with the disjunction between experience and what

can be recorded photographically. In the case of Rwanda, the

disjunction was enormous and the tragedy unpresentable. This

is why it was so important for me to speak with people, to

record their word, their ideas, their feelings. I discovered that

the truth of tragedy was in the feelings, words, and ideas of

those people and not in the pictures. (Jaar, 2006)

The lack of imagery used his work RWANDA, RWAND (1994) was a direct

result of how tough and photojournalistic the photographs were that he had

taken in 1994 in Rwanda. In Malmo, Sweden, he was offered a number of

light boxes around the city to display the images but declined to do so,

instead he put in the words RWANDA RWANDA around the city. Jaar thought

‘A simple sign, in the form of an insistent cry, would get their attention’

(Jaar. 2006).

Jaar has mentioned in a video on Galerie Lelong website that ‘we have

become numbed and they seem not to affect us anymore because we are

producing billions of images every second and most of these images are not

interesting’ (Galerie Lelong. 2006). That is evident today with the large

number of refugees coming from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and North Africa.

Thousands of images of hardship, riots at borders in Hungary and Death.

One image gave a face to the refugee crises, young boy, Aylan Kurdi which

was taken of him on a beach after his body had washed ashore in Turkey

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when his family made a journey across the Mediterranean to enter Europe.

For a time, there didn’t seem to be many images coming through of the

hardship the refugees faced but one could argue that the stream of images

was so much that that they became blurred and unseen or as Jaar has said

‘…most of the images are not interesting’ (Galerie Lelong. 2006). Referring

back to Alfredo Jaars work in Sweden with Rwanda Rwanda (1994), you can

understand why he avoided the use of photojournalist images and instead

refer to the simplicity of text.

2.4 Untitled – Newsweek 1995.

Alfredo Jaar’s Untitled - Newsweek, Highlights the role of

the media during the genocide and more specifically, the

Newsweek magazine in the United States. The work which

consists of the front page of the magazine over the period

of the genocide. Below each image is a sentence or

a short paragraph that tells the viewer what is

happening in Rwanda at the time of the published

magazine and it includes the death toll thus far. As

the genocide continued, the death toll rose because

of the failure of the international community to act. The lack

of attention of the international community on Rwanda was reflected by

Newsweek failing to inform their audience of the horrors in Rwanda, instead they

continued to feed them celebrity related news and consumption lead articles.

Figure 1 and 2 highlight the lack of coverage Newsweek gave to the genocide.

Figure 2. Newsweek.

Figure 1. Newsweek

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Figure 4 Real Pictures. 1996.

The magazine cover on the right (figure 3) was published

on August 1st, 15 days after the end of the widespread

genocide, for which it is estimated that nearly one

million people had been killed. Alfredo Jaar’s work

brought into question the responsibility and ethical

position of the media throughout he genocide, for which,

similar comparisons can still be made this day with regards to current

conflicts.

2.5 Real Pictures 1996.

In 1995, in the Museum of Contemporary

Photography, Chicago, Jaar displayed his

images in a piece named Real pictures. It

consisted of 60 images that represented the

genocide. However, rather than showing

images, he put the them in black boxes and

stacked the black boxes one on top of another. By

stacking the boxes in the installation. Jaar created a monument. On the top of

each box, written in white was a description of the image that lay inside that

box. The work created a non-image installation, that bears witness to what is

impossible to present. When I previously saw this work in 2012 in Berlin I

was taken aback by it. The hidden images were much stronger than I

expected and as I read the descriptions on the boxes I was hit suddenly with

strong emotions that made me incredibly frustrated and angered by what had

happened nearly 20 years ago and the lives that were lost. The media in

North America and Europe were highly criticised for their lack of coverage

Figure 3. Newsweek

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Figure 5. The Eyes of Gutete Emerita, 1996.

of the genocide. As Noam Chomsky said in his book how the world works

‘the general population doesn’t know what’s happening, and it doesn’t even

know that It doesn’t know’ (2012. P. 78). This is exactly how the media

corporations work.

2.6 The Eyes of Gutete Emerita 1996.

In 1996, Alfredo Jaar produced another

powerful piece as part of his Rwanda Project

(1994 – 2000). The piece is named: The eyes of

Gutete Emerita. As you enter the space there is

text on the walls telling you the story of Gutete

Emerita. A very visual part of this piece are the thousands of images of

Gutete Emeriti’s eyes, they are piled upon a white light table. It is said that

the work has no narrative but rather it is the eyes of a survivor who has

witnessed an unimaginable systemic ethnic cleansing. Gutete not only

witnessed the murder of her fellow country men and women but also the

murder of her husband and two sons. Talking about the recent acquisition

of The eyes of Gutete Emerita (1996), Katherine Hart says ‘It is one of the

most important works of art about war and violence that has been created

in the last thirty years’ (2006). Jaar offers the viewer a moment away from

the image saturated society and to see things differently by not showing

war and violence. but instead he has stocked the imagination of the viewer

and challenged their perceptions.

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Chapter 3.

In this chapter I will highlight the privatisation of historical images and

the online saturation of images in contemporary society. Alfredo Jaar’s

work which is titled Lament of the Images (2002) informs the viewer that

many millions of images have become privatised. Images that have

historical importance. Then I will talk about the way in which he has

situated his work and how he offers an alternative.

3.1. Lament of the Images (2002).

As chapter two shows, Alfredo Jaar’s refusal to produce media like

images of horror has led to him turning the lens on what the survivor

witnesses and the stories and experiences of those who are living through

war. Another project of his that evidences this process is Lament of the

Images (2002). In one room there are three dark panels with text written in

white. The first panel informs the viewer of how

Bill Gates had purchased and archived historically important

images, approximately 17 million images in 2001. As the text

reads on the panel the collection includes images of the wright

brothers in flight, JFK Jr saluting his father’s coffin, important

images form the Vietnam war, and Nelson Mandela in Prison

(2002).

The text continues near the bottom and mentions:

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft owns two other photo

agencies and secured the digital reproduction rights to works in

many of the world’s art museums. ‘At present, Gates owns the

rights to show (or buy) an estimated 65 million images’ the

images are said to be buried in a vault in an old limestone mine

in Pennsylvania in the United States. (Lament of the Images

2002)

The second panel is about Nelson Mandela and his time on Robin Island in

prison. It is more specific, its information is about the prisoners and how

they would be taken to the limestone quarry and made to work in the heat.

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The light from the sun and the brightness of the limestone lead to Nelson

Mandela having damaged retinas and that ‘it had taken away his ability to

cry’ (Lament of the Images, 2002).

The third and final panel goes into detail and explains that just prior to the

invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the United States had purchased all rights

to satellite imagery of Afghanistan and neighbouring countries. The panel

explains:

It produced an effective white-out of the operation, preventing

western media seeing the effects of the bombing, and

eliminating the possibility of independent verification or

refutation of government claims (Lament of the Images, 2002).

On a digital audio recording in MOMA, Jaar explains what the work is

about ‘let there be light, I want to see… (2002)’ as he continues Jaar is

talking about truth and justice. He ends this sentence by saying ‘it is the

absence of images’ (2002).

What we have here is Alfredo Jaar visually telling us that private

companies and the United States military have purchased the rights to

images, images considered important on historical grounds but also

important in terms of refuting the claims of the US war in Afghanistan and

possible crimes committed. Through a decade long engagement with the

Rwandan genocide and the media’s coverage of it, Alfredo Jaar responded

as an artist, working to create work that would highlight such terror

without producing typical images. His work also draws connections

between powerful countries such as USA and their role through media and

state intervention in the Rwandan genocide.

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3.2. The Privatisation of Images.

The Rwanda project (1994 – 2000) was an attempt to communicate an atrocity

without actually showing the photojournalistic pictures that we have come to

see so much of in our interconnected world. With the dominance of social

networking sites like Facebook and Twitter with a combined active user base of

1.9 Billion (Statistica, 2016), images from crises such as war, famine, genocide

and natural disasters are seen at a higher rate than that of the days of print

media thanks to rapid sharing of photos, videos and articles. Because of this

image saturation generation, I believe people have become somewhat

desensitised to such images because of the pace at which they are shared

around the world. Not only do we have the problem with rapid sharing, we now

have a global games industry which makes billions of dollars a year with war

games, such as the Call of Duty franchise which has earned $11 Billion

worldwide since 2003 (ign.com). Central to these games are life images, further

de-sensitising the Western population to imagery of war. A study carried out by

professor Shahira Fahmy of the University of Arizona and her colleagues

carried out an experiment to explore if the manipulation of the graphicness of

war imagery impacted policy beliefs, attitudes and moods of individuals. In the

experiment, ‘They found no significant differences in higher compared to lower

levels of graphicness in perceived severity of war or stronger policy

perceptions. There also were no differences in mood across graphicness

conditions…’ (2011)

In the book The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies (Barthes, 1997),

Genevieve Serreau talks about the affect or lack of affect that Shock Photos at

Galerie d’Orsay had on the viewer.

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We are in each case dispossessed of our judgement: someone

shuttered for us, reflected for us, judged for us; the

photographer has left us nothing-except a simple right of

intellectual acquiescence: we are linked to these images only by

a technical interest; over indicated by the artist himself, for us

they have no history, we can no longer invent our own

reception of this synthetic nourishment, already perfectly

assimilate by its creator. (1997. P. 71).

Jaar’s work aims to inform the viewer. He has occupied the public and private

sphere through interventions such as Signs of life (1994) and Questions

Questions (2008). In the book Agonistic Politics and Artistic Practices, Chantal

Mouffe talks about Hegemonic Intervention, and how ‘Alfredo Jaar’s artistic

interventions chime with the hegemonic approach in several ways’ (2013, p.

94). - In sociology ‘when socially powerful people use their influence to

convince less powerful people it is in their best interest to do what is actually in

the most powerful people’s best interest, that’s hegemony’ (Sociology in Focus,

2012). Alfredo Jaars work Questions Questions (2008) is mentioned in the

book and how it was an alternative to traditional advertisement in Milan which

was majority owed by former Italian Prime Minister and media tycoon Silvio

Berlusconi. By buying up the advertisement from Berlusconi in Milan, Alfredo

Jaar replaced the old advertisements with question’s like ‘DOES POLITICS

NEED CULTURE?’ and ‘IS THE INTELLECTUAL USELESS?’ (Mouffe.

2013, p. 95). This is an alternative to the traditional media and advertisement

the general public see. Using the existing system, Alfredo Jaar can highlight the

problem rather than opposing it with different means.

Many activists today prefer to oppose the establishment externally and believe

by engaging with the establishment (exhibiting in museums or public

institutions) they are somehow propping it up, similar to Dada and how he

believed the ‘art world’ was complicate and part of the establishment. Noam

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Chomsky mentioned in a talk that he is part of the staff at MIT (Massachusetts

Institute of Technology) since the 1950’s and how that it is funded by the

department of Defence but yet he continuously lectures about the wrongs of US

foreign policy. He does go on to say ‘the way to change them is from the

inside’ (Chomsky. 2014). Again, in the book Agonistic Politics and Artistic

Practices, Mouffe references the Yes Men, who describe themselves as people

‘who Impersonate bigtime criminals in order to publicly humiliate them, and

otherwise giving journalists excuses to cover important issues’

(theyesmen.org). She describes their practice as ‘counter-hegemonic

intervention’ (2013. p. 98) and goes on to say that ‘by putting Artivist forms at

the service of political activism, these Artivist practices represent an important

dimension of radical politics’ (2013. P. 99). The saturation of images in today’s

society seemed to have influenced Alfredo Jaar’s creative process. His work

Lament of the Images (2002) we are told about the privatisation of images yet

in his work he doesn’t use images. Question’s Question’s (2008) clarified to me

why this is. Just like Duchamp’s Fountain (1917), Jaar’s use of conceptualism

was to raise questions in regards to Rwanda, the media, private companies

buying up millions of images and once again to challenge the viewer.

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Conclusion

In chapter One I introduced the concept of installation and conceptual art

with reference to Carl Andre and his work Equivalents VIII (1966). I then

introduced the field of socially engaged art and gave an example of this by

referring to Rick Lowe and his work Project Row Houses (1993) and What’s

the Story? Collective (2007 – 2011) which I was a member. I finished the

chapter highlighting the important influence of Dadaism and Duchamp in the

roots of these movements in art and I positioned the work of Alfredo Jaar

within these frames.

In chapter two, I gave a brief history of the state of Rwanda following the first

world war and how the genocide came to being and then introduced a number

of works from the Rwanda Project (1994 – 2000). The projects ranged from

1994 to 1996. I began by detailing Alfredo Jaar’s trip in Rwanda which was the

time he developed Signs of Life (1994), then I talked Rwanda Rwanda (1994),

Newsweek (1995), Real Pictures (1996) and The Eyes of Gutete Emerita

(1996).

In Chapter three I highlighted the privatisation of historical images Lament of

the Images (2002) and how the online community has become saturated with

images, referencing how Facebook and Twitter have a monthly active user base

of 1.9 billion people. I explained how this saturation has led to people having

‘no significant differences in higher compared to lower levels of

graphicness…’ (Fahmy, 2013). This result leaves us with no alternative but to

find different means to communicate atrocities.

This thesis is suggesting a number of points. The first point: Art doesn’t have to

be non-political to be liked, it can be aesthetically beautifully and useful. The

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second point: Free access to material is very important in today’s society, it has

become too easy to only see one side of a story, biased or leading information.

The internet has created a great way to communicate but at the same time we

need to be vigilant, not only about the information we do see but the

information we don’t get to see. My third point: The use of the non-image takes

away that idea of a shock factor and allows the viewer to be consumed in the

conceptual and to find their own shock within the work. I found this when I

viewed Alfredo Jaars work in Berlin, no image was necessary but the concept,

the structure and the information worked well. That day, I felt art had served a

purpose higher than itself, it was useful.

In closing, I would like to draw on contemporary artist Tania Bruguera’s

suggestion that ‘we have to put Duchamp's urinal back in the restroom’ (2011).

Through my exploration of the work of Alfredo Jaar and his use of art as a

means to challenge global injustice, I believe in the power of art as a real

alternative to media representation of war and terror. It is time for art to be

useful again.

25

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