by Alfredo Jaar, 2009, 38′
The Ashes of Pasolini was created for The Fear Society – Pabellón de la Urgencia an exhibition produced by Murcia Autonomous Region as a collateral event of the 2009 Venice Biennale, in preparation for Manifesta 8. A tribute to the brilliant Italian filmmaker, intellectual, poet, critic, and journalist Pier Paolo Pasolini The Ashes of Pasolini incorporates footage from Pasolini’s films and rare interviews conducted prior to his sudden and mysterious death in 1975. Jaar’s homage to Pasolini follows the poem “Le ceneri di Gramsci” which Pasolini created in 1954 as an homage to Antonio Gramsci, the Italian intellectual who died in 1937 after ten years in fascist jails.
The movie is focused on the issue of the consciousness about the engagement between politics, ethics, and art. Alfredo Jaar, who was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1956, grew up during Pinochet’s military dictatorship. His work concerns critical reflections about the political oppression and social emargination.
