Is critical reflection possible today? Is political resistance possible today? Do the mercantilisation of images of suffering and their distribution in the mass media lead to political indifference?

The artist Alfredo Jaar discusses these questions and the fraught relationship between ethics and aesthetics, between politics and power —issues in his works— and our role as political agents.

Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect and film-maker who lives and works in New York. Throughout his lengthy career, he has created a critical oeuvre that examines the mechanisms and ideological frameworks behind the construction of the images and discourses that circulate in the public sphere. His works and public interventions, which have been seen all over the world, have garnered him international recognition. He is participating in the exhibition Why War?  with the works May 1, 2011, War Criminal and Mea Culpa.