KINDL presents The End of the World by Alfredo Jaar from September 15, 2024 to June 1, 2025. Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect and filmmaker. For over 40 years, he has been dealing with complex socio-political issues and the limits and ethics of representability. His interventions and works are always preceded by time-consuming and resource-intensive research into topics of global significance: humanitarian disasters, military conflicts, economic inequality and political corruption.
Image above: Kesselhaus, KINDL, Photo: Jens Ziehe, Edit: Alfredo Jaar / Otto Sauhaus
For the Kesselhaus at KINDL, he has developed a new site-specific installation that deals with the greed for raw materials and its consequences – a theme that Jaar has been exploring since the mid-1980s. In 1985, he visited the Brazilian gold mine Sierra Pelada and subsequently dealt with the catastrophic, exploitative mining work and greed for profit in several works (Gold in the Morning, 1985; Welcome to the (Third) World, 1986; Rushes, 1986-87; 1+1+1, 1987). He also addressed issues such as ecological justice in the work Geography = War (1990), in which he documented toxic waste exports from industrialized countries to Nigeria. In 1992, he presented The Conference at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro as a critical response to Eco 92, the first UN Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit or Rio Conference.
After five years of research into our battered planet, Alfredo Jaar, with the support of political geologist Adam Bobbette, is now presenting his findings on the ecological and political crises that are looming for our future at the KINDL. With the installation The End of the World (2024), he shines a spotlight on the battle for resources, which is an essential and increasingly important factor in international conflicts. Jaar focuses on ten strategic metals that play a central role in the areas of digitalization and electromobility, high-tech applications and storage media: Cobalt, rare earths, copper, tin, nickel, lithium, manganese, coltan, germanium and platinum. These materials, some of which are in extremely limited supply, are currently indispensable for our present and future. While the demand for these raw materials is constantly increasing around the world, their extraction is accompanied by the destruction of nature and massive human rights violations everywhere. These strategic metals are at the heart of today’s military conflicts and give rise to oppressive scenarios of future procurement wars.
As part of the Berlin Art Week 2024
Curator: Kathrin Becker
WHEN?
Opening: Saturday, September 14, 6 – 9 p.m.
Exhibition dates: Sunday, September 15, 2024 – Sunday, June 1, 2025
Opening hours: Wednesday, 12 – 8 pm, Thursday – Sunday, 12 – 6 pm
WHERE?
KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art
Am Sudhaus 3
12053 Berlin
COST?
YOU for KINDL: 10 EUR
KINDL for YOU: 7 EUR
Reduced admission: 4 EUR
Under 18 years: Free admission
