World-renowned artist and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar will be giving a presentation about his art and career at the Dodd Research Center in Konover Auditorium at 1:00pm on Wednesday, October 21st.   Jaar, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award will be creating a new human rights installation in March 2010 at the Contemporary Art Galleries at the University of Connecticut.  

Jaar’s films and art installations explore world events such as genocides, epidemics, and famines. His work bears witness to military conflicts, political corruption, and imbalances of power between industrialized and developing nations. Subjects addressed include the holocaust in Rwanda, gold mining in Brazil, toxic pollution in Nigeria, and issues related to the border between Mexico and the United States.  Jaar’s Many awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award; a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award; and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts ; and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Jaar’s talk is being cosponsored by the University of Connecticut’s Department of Art and Art History and Human Right Institute.  Catalogs of Jaar’s work are available at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.