Alfredo Jaar – författare

Inferno & Paradiso is the catalog accompanying the exhibition to be presented at the Cortona On The Move festival and later shown at the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne. This project explores the complexity of the human condition between suffering and hope, pain and joy. The project include twenty of today’s greatest photojournalists, each invited to select two images from their archives: one representing the most harrowing horror and one capturing a moment of joy. The exhibition and book challenge the idea that constant exposure to images of suffering leads to numbness. The real problem is often seeing bodies and stories that fail to reflect the genuine gaze we wish to offer them. The photographs, projected as slides in an immersive installation, guide visitors on a journey through Inferno and Paradiso, much like Virgil leads Dante in the Divine Comedy. The project reveals that hell and paradise are not distant or metaphysical places, but concrete conditions of our everyday lives. Happiness and suffering intertwine in a fragile balance that requires care, attention, and responsibility. Inferno & Paradiso serves as a warning against the indifference and apathy that often accompany global tragedies and crises. It invites us not to turn away, but to become active witnesses to reality. The book pays tribute to the moral courage of photographers who, often risking their lives, bring us hidden truths, revealing the darkest and brightest facets of humanity. In times marked by new crises and rising authoritarianism, this work confirms art’s power as a tool for memory and transformation. It urges us to reflect on what it means to live together, to face pain, and to nurture hope in a fragile and divided world.