The decolonial project of Alfredo Jaar

This dissertation reframes the art of Alfredo Jaar (b. Santiago, Chile, 1956; New York-based since 1982) through the lens of decolonial thought. Decoloniality is a post-continental philosophical system that regards colonialism as a fundamental element in the formation of the modern capitalist world system which began with European expansion in the Americas in the 16th century. A way of doing, thinking, and being, decoloniality posits that decolonization is an incomplete but urgent, necessary, and ethical imperative. I argue that Jaar’s art overall is itself a decolonial project whose aim is to identify and to challenge the inherently hierarchical relationships of our modern capitalist world system. Relying on archival research, personal interviews, and a transdisciplinary approach to contemporary art history, I propose that at the core of Jaar’s practice is a decolonial critique of the catastrophic humanitarian and epistemological consequences of neoliberalism, a capitalist economic project and ideological outlook that defines our present moment. This was particularly significant during the Chilean civic-military dictatorship (1973-1990) when Jaar was coming of age as an artist. While this dissertation examines main themes and concerns in Jaar’s art since his earliest series of works in 1974 to the present, it centers particularly in his work made in the early 1980s New York, since it was in this specific time and space that Jaar developed the main lines of inquiry of his practice. In examining Jaar’s critique of the enmeshed relationship between neoliberalism and coloniality, this dissertation also unearths an important hemispheric, anti-imperialist, and solidarity genealogy around Latin America whose epicenter was New York in the 1970s and 1980s. In an era where right-wing dictatorships have yielded to failed socialist states in Latin America, this dissertation provides a fresh and timely understanding of both Jaar’s art and the contemporary situation of the Americas. It is relevant for furthering the understanding of Latin American and American art as hemispheric and transdisciplinary fields, critiquing the discourse on globalization and global contemporary art, considering the relationship between art and politics and art and ethics, and contributing to the field of memory studies in Latin America.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference