Alfredo Jaar is the recipient of the Hasselblad Award 2020

The Chilean multimedia artist Alfredo Jaar won the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography 2020, the prestigious photographic prize founded by the Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation in 1980 as crowning to a long and pioneering career in the field of photography. Alfredo Jaar now joins the group of iconic masters and past winners such as Cindy Sherman, Ansel Adams, Daido Moriyama, Walid Raad, Robert Frank, and Graciela Iturbide.

Known for his incisive conceptual work investigating globalism and political resistance, Jaar will receive the prize during the award ceremony in Gothenburg, Sweden, in October; besides the money grant, a solo exhibition dedicated to him will open to the public at the Hasselblad Center as part of the award.

Born in Chile, Jaar now lives and works in New York. Working across a wide range of media such as installations, sculptures, photographs, performances, films, and conceptual pieces, his interest lies in the way photography shapes our understanding of global politics, concerning in particular migration and dictatorial regimes. 

Thyago Nogueira, head of the photography department at the Instituto Moreira Salles in Rio de Janeiro and president of the award’s jury, said: “Alfredo Jaar explores complex socio-political issues, bringing to the fore the ethics of representation. Through quiet and meditative works, Jaar confronts issues of great magnitude, bearing witness to humanitarian disasters and attesting to the impact of military conflict, political corruption and economic inequality throughout the world.”