A new, site specific iteration of Alfredo Jaar’s Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, rendered in red neon, now adorns the façade of Galerie Thomas Schulte’s new space on Potsdamer Strasse. This piece is part of a series Jaar began in 1995, following his trip to Rwanda, where he witnessed the genocide of the Tutsi population. It symbolizes the struggle to transcend the madness of war, violence, and trauma while condemning global power imbalances and the media's overwhelming flood of images. The phrase "teach us to outgrow our madness" originates from W.H. Auden's 1939 poem Commentary. In 1969, Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe adopted the phrase as the title for his anthology of short stories.
16 September 2024
