Alfredo Jaar (b. 1956) is a Chilean artist, architect and filmmaker who now lives and works in Lisbon after spending over 40 years in New York. He is considered one of our era’s most culturally, politically and socially committed artists. In 1994, he traveled to Rwanda to witness the genocide firsthand – an experience that radically changed his life and his artistic practice.
Jaar has exhibited around the world, including at the Venice Biennale (1986, 2007, 2009 and 2013), at documenta in Kassel (1987 and 2002) and at the Rencontres d’Arles (2013). He has been the subject of over 80 solo shows, including at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts (MCBA) in Lausanne in 2007. Jaar won the Hasselblad Award in 2020, the IV Premi Mediterrani Albert Camus in 2024 and the Prix Pictet in 2025.
His works are held in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Tate Modern in London; the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid; the Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo (MAXXI) and the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma (MARCO) in Rome; the MCBA in Lausanne; and numerous other museums and private collections around the world.
