Allison Grimaldi Donahue

Tonight No Poetry Will Serve by Alfredo Jaar offers a powerful reflection on the limits of language and the role of creative expression in times of tragedy. A lament for today’s darkness and a call to find the words to confront these tragic hours, the bold new public intervention displays the arresting title of a poem by Adrienne Rich (1929–2012), a figure of inspiration for Jaar since the 1980s, who observed the limits of words in times of unthinkable violence: “no poetry can serve to mitigate such acts, they nullify language itself,” she wrote in 2011.

Throughout November 2023, Alfredo Jaar and CIRCA commissioned a series of poetic dialogues, curated by Vittoria de Franchis and Josef O’Connor, from international writers, thinkers and speakers. Giving voice to those who find themselves silenced or without words, the poems hope to achieve Rich’s ambition that creative expression can reconcile conflicting realities.

Alfredo Jaar is one of the most influential artists of the past four decades, internationally recognised for a practice that confronts political violence, humanitarian crises and the ethics of representation. Working across installation, photography, film, architecture and public space, he has consistently asked how art can respond to injustice while preserving the dignity of those whose stories are too often overlooked or erased.

Born in Santiago, Chile, and based in New York, Jaar emerged during the final years of the Pinochet dictatorship and developed a body of work that examines the relationship between images, power and public consciousness. From his landmark Rwanda Project to iconic public interventions such as A Logo for America and I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On, Jaar has challenged audiences to consider not only what is visible, but also what remains unseen, unheard or deliberately obscured. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated a profound belief in art’s capacity to create spaces for reflection, empathy and civic responsibility.

In 2023, Jaar collaborated with CIRCA on Tonight No Poetry Will Serve, a major public intervention presented across London, Berlin, Milan, Seoul and Tokyo. Conceived in the weeks following the attacks of 7 October and the devastating humanitarian crisis that unfolded in Gaza, the work reflected on the limits of language in the face of human suffering. Taking its title from a poem by Adrienne Rich, the commission emerged from a growing sense that words alone could not adequately respond to the scale of grief, violence and despair unfolding before the world, while creating space for poets, writers and artists to contribute their own acts of witness and reflection. Released alongside a fundraising initiative supporting Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, the project reflected Jaar’s enduring belief that art and culture remain essential spaces for empathy, moral reflection and resistance.

A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Hiroshima Art Prize and Hasselblad Award, Jaar has participated in the Venice Biennale, São Paulo Biennial and Documenta, while realising more than seventy-five public interventions worldwide. His work is held in the collections of institutions including MoMA, the Guggenheim Museum, Tate, Centre Pompidou, Museo Reina Sofía and M+ Hong Kong. Through a practice that combines conceptual rigour with profound humanitarian concern, Alfredo Jaar continues to challenge how we see, understand and respond to the world around us.