Alfredo Jaar

mezzaterra11 – flat gallery is excited to introduce a solo exhibition of a new photographic work by Alfredo Jaar (b. Santiago, Chile, 1956). Under the brutal regime of General Pinochet who had overthrown the democratic government of Chile in a military coup (backed by the United States) on September 11, 1973, it was inevitable for Jaar to be an artist, who trained as an architect, as a form of resistance to dictatorship and international silence. Having fled to the U.S.A. in 1982, Jaar has become the most radical and uncompromising artist. For Jaar, context is everything; and consequently, all his work is born as a reaction to the reality that surrounds him. One of the most-widely known public project, A Logo for America—in Times Square, New York in 1987, has awakened us and changed the routines of seeing and saying without consciousness; Jaar has never failed to question and stimulate our indifference and slumbers on social and political issues around the globe including genocide, refugees, racism, continental inequality, and media manipulation, using various medium, based on deep research and investigation on every subject, such as public interventions, installation, photography, and film for over 40 years. Starting with a small exhibition, Three Women, in Paris in 2011, Jaar’s research on invisible women doing extraordinary work trying to change the world has massively grown, albeit unexpectedly, and expanded to a global scale. For mezzaterra11 – flat gallery, Jaar presents Letizia (2022) in homage to his late friend, Letizia Battaglia (b. Palermo, 1935 - 2022), considered the most important photographer in Italy for the last fifty years. She fought courageously and tirelessly against the notorious Sicilian Mafia during the 80s and 90s with a Leica camera alone. She published disturbing images in black and white of blood spilt deaths, corruption, political assassinations, poverty and devastation in the mournful Palermo caused by Cosa Nostra’s reign in the daily newspaper, L’Ora, and public places in order to stir the citizens to be enraged and to break the silence wrapped by a blanket of fear. Battaglia, furthermore, continued to fight for women’s rights in the patriarchal society. As Jaar says, she won both battles. Now we have Letizia, photographed by the artist, watching us in the street of Mezzaterra, Belluno, accompanied with Jaar’s words, “For her, photography was an act of resistance and an act of love. Go walk the streets of Palermo and you will find her.”