Alfons Hug

Alfons Hug (born 1950 in Hochdorf, Southern Germany) is a curator, critic and exhibition organizer.

Hug studied Linguistics, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies in Freiburg, Berlin, Dublin and Moscow. He curated the XXV and XXVI São Paulo Art Biennial in 2002 and 2004. Hug was the first non-Brazilian to curate this art event.

Since the mid-'80s Hug has worked as Director of Goethe-Institutes (German Cultural Centres) in Lagos, Medellín, Brasília, Caracas and Moscow. From 2002-2015 he occupied this position in Goethe Institute in Rio de Janeiro. Currently he is director of the Goethe-Institute in Singapore.

In the '90s Hug was head of the Visual Arts Department at “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), Berlin.

History

• 2015: Curator of the Latin American Pavilion, IILA, Venice Biennial
• 2014: Curator of the 2nd. Bienal of Montevideo, Uruguay
• 2013: Curator of the Latin American Pavilion, IILA, Venice Biennial
• 2003: Curator Proyecto "Trapananda", Aysén, Chile
• 2012: Curator of the "BRICS"-project, Kochi Biennial, India
• 2012: Curator of the 1st. Bienal of Montevideo, Uruguay
• 2011: Curator of the Latin American Pavilion, IILA, Venice Biennial
• 2011: Curator of the Bienal de Curitiba, Brazil
• 2009: Curator of the Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
• 2005: Curator of Brazilian Pavilion, Venice Biennial
• 2005: Curator of Brazilian Representation, New Delhi Triennial
• 2004: Curator of Brazilian Representation, Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador
• 2004: Chief Curator, 26th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (917,000 visitors)
• 2003: Organizer of “Old Art from Africa”, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (750,000 visitors)
• 2003: Curator of Brazilian Pavilion, Venice Biennial
• 2003: Co-curator, 5th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
• 2002: Chief Curator, 25th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (670,000 visitors)

Curated also:

• 2015: O papagaio de Humboldt, Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro + Oca (Sao Paulo)
• 2014: BRICS, Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro (Art from Brazil, India, China, South Africa, Russia)
• 2013: El Aleph (Anthony Mc Call and Mischa Kuball), Faena Arts Center, Buenos Aires
• 2013: "Miradas insobornables", Buenos Aires
• 2013: O jogo só acaba quando termina - art and football (Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Brasilia, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Santiago de Chile, La Paz, Lima, Caracas, Nürnberg, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Berlin)
• 2012: "High Tech-low tech": Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte
• 2010-2011: "Menos Tiempo que Lugar": Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Salta, Quito, Santiago, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Medellín, La Paz, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Lima, Guadalajara
• 2009: "Arte da Antártida", Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro
• 2009-2010: "Intemperie", Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, Rosario, Montevideo, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Boston, Quito, Toulouse, Kiel, Berlin, Hong Kong, Manila
• 2007-2009: "The Tropics", CCBB Brasília, CCBB Rio de Janeiro, Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin), National Gallery (Cape Town), Jim Thompson Art Center (Bangkok)
• 2007: "Relíquias e Ruinas", Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro
• 2007: "Arte da China", CCBB Rio de Janeiro
• 2006: “Fußball: Zeichnung auf grünem Grund”, CCBB Rio de Janeiro
• 2006: Neue brasilianische Fotokunst, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein
• 2005: “Alegoria barroca na arte contemporânea”, CCBB, Rio de Janeiro
• 2004: “Carnaval”, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro
• 2000: “90x60x90-El síndrome de la Miss”, Museo Jacobo Borges, Caracas
• 1999: Internetproject with ZKM (Karlsruhe): Philip Pocock, Roberto Cabot, W. Staehle
• 1999: El Retorno de Humboldt (Caracas)
• 1998: Biennale de Dakar, co-curator, Contemp. Korean Art, (Berlin)
• 1997: Painting from China (organizer), Berlin
• 1997: Die anderen Modernen (25 Artists from Latin America, Asia and Africa), (Berlin)
• 1996: Colours – South African Art (Berlin)
• 1995: Havanna/São Paulo- Contemporary Art from Latin America (Berlin)
• Die Rote Burg – Art from Spain and North Africa (Berlin)
• Contemporary African Art (Berlin)
• 1994: Soundscape Brasília, various venues in Brasília
• 1994: Revendo Brasília, Galeria Athos Bulcão (Brasília), Museu de Imagem e Som (São Paulo), Palácio Gustavo Capanema (Rio de Janeiro), Museu Metropolitano de Arte (Curitiba)
• 1984-87: 10 individual and group shows of Nigerian artists in Lagos
• 1992-93 : Arte Amazonas, Museu de Arte Moderna (Rio de Janeiro), Museu de Arte, (Brasília), Kunsthalle Berlin, Ludwig Forum, Aachen

References

• "Rio de Janeiro: Vision vom Paradies" [Rio de Janeiro: Vision of Paradise]. Focus Magazin (in German) (Online Focus) (16 (2002)). 2002-04-15. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
• "Eine Reise in die Eingeweide lateinamerikanischer Gesellschaften" [A journey into the bowels of Latin American Societies] (in German). Goethe Institut. March 2010. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
• "Alfons Hug" (in German). Universes in Universe. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
• http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-65169799.html
• http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/specials/2008/tropics/
• http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/bien/curitiba_biennial/2011
• http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/bien/biennial_of_the_end_of_the_world/2009
• http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/specials/2010/bicentenario/
• http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/bien/venice_biennale/2011/tour/latin_america
• http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/bien/venice_biennale/2013/tour/latin_america
• http://www.faz.net/frankfurter-allgemeine-zeitung/feuilleton/die-vermessung-der-unabhaengigkeit-1653790.html
• http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/bien/montevideo_biennial/2012
• http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/feuilleton/uebersicht/flinke-messer-und-schwere-duefte-1.18044261
• http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/bien/montevideo_biennial/2014
• http://universes-in-universe.org/deu/bien/biennale_venedig/2015/tour/latin_america