Alfredo Jaar: Studies on Happiness (Afterall Books / One Work)
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- Synopsis
- A richly illustrated survey of Alfredo Jaar&’s Studies on Happiness (1979–1981) and its deep political stakes in the historical context of Chile&’s neoliberal transition.Between 1979 and 1981, Alfredo Jaar asked Chileans a deceptively simple question: "Are you happy?" Through private interviews, sidewalk polls and video-recorded forums, among other interventions, Jaar&’s three-year and seven-phase project, Studies on Happiness, addressed a furtive and fearful population living under Augusto Pinochet&’s military dictatorship. It also spoke to a country in transition, as a newly adopted constitution remade Chile through privatisation and other neoliberal reforms. In its varied interventions and direct mode of address, Studies on Happiness functioned as a feedback device meant to catalyse a critical awareness with its blunt questioning.Edward A. Vazquez contextualises Studies on Happiness within Jaar&’s early production and situates his practice within a Chilean art world haunted by the residues of political violence. This study foregrounds the project&’s historical embeddedness and the deep political stakes of its apparent sociality, recognising the crucial role that context has always played in Jaar&’s practice. By turning to the Santiago of Studies on Happiness, Vazquez explores the work&’s political and art historical environment and provides a wedge to realign current interpretations of Chilean art and hemispheric conceptualism with the openness central to Jaar&’s project.
- Copyright:
- 2023
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Book Size:
- 152 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9781846382604
- Related ISBNs:
- 9781846382598
- Publisher:
- MIT Press
- Date of Addition:
- 12/12/23
- Copyrighted By:
- the author, the artists, Afterall, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- History, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.