Alfredo Jaar
Dimitra Ioannou
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.
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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, 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.
We are going through a very repressive moment, when nuance is lost and free speech is threatened. But I strongly believe that the spaces of art and culture must remain spaces of freedom. Artists will not be intimidated. In this environment, I have turned to the words of anti-war campaigner and poet Adrienne Rich to reflect both the limits of language and the frustration felt by many that voices for peace and justice cannot sound out as clearly as we wish. And, as part of the CIRCA commission, I am turning to today’s poets, writers, and artists, to support a forum for creative expression where the clear-sighted demands of humanity and empathy can be heard. In these times when politics have failed us miserably, art and culture are our only hope. Art is like the air we breathe, without art, life would be unlivable. Art creates spaces of resistance, spaces of hope.
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA by Dimitra Ioannou
THE NEW PRESENT TENSE
spectres of today and always, nihilistic devices,
white phosphorus flesh and sight,
IS A BROKEN STRIP
THE NEW PRESENT TENSE
defence dictionaries, wax-like skin,
remnants of personal details and intimate rights
IS A KILL BOX IN WHICH DEATH IS MINE
THE NEW PRESENT TENSE
kill strategies, kill maps, kill lists,
drones firing outside the door and safe traps
COMES IN, COMES IN AND OUT RELENTLESSLY
THE NEW PRESENT TENSE
a cheap blood propaganda, genocidal lyrics,
deadly ultimatums & stones in the mouth
FALLS ON US THERMOBARIC
THE NEW PRESENT TENSE
draconian nightmares, olive scars,
shattered soil & sounds of dispossession
IS STILL ALIVE BUT BARELY
THE NEW PRESENT TENSE
final words, last pictures,
mass graves and record numbers
NATURALLY IT IS NOT
IS A MARTYR
Dimitra Ioannou experiments with narrative or anti-narrative forms in various media (language, photography, publications). Her long poem, “How Poems-Cities,” was commissioned by the Onassis Cultural Centre (2018) for the Radio_ OCC series. She has had poems published in Stand, Splinter, MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture, ZARF, DATABLEED, Tears in the Fence, Litmus, and Blackbox Manifold among others. Her photos and (video)poems have been exhibited in group shows in Greece. She is author of the experimental novella Soy Sea (Futura, Athens) and editor of the poetry and art journal A) GLIMPSE) OF). She has translated contemporary radical poets from English into Greek. She is based in Athens.
Biography
Alfredo Jaar
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.