Alfons Hug

Alfons Hug (born 16 March 1950 in Hochdorf, Southern West 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-1980s Hug has worked as director of Goethe-Institutes (German Cultural Centres) in Lagos, Medellín, Brasília, Caracas and Moscow. From 2002 to 2015 he occupied this position at the Goethe-Institute in Rio de Janeiro and from July 2015–February 2016 in Singapore. From June 2016 till June 2017 he was again director of the Goethe-Institute in Lagos, Nigeria, and from 2017 to 2023 founding director of Goethe-Zentrum in Baku, Azerbaijan.

From 1994 to 1998 Hug was head of the Visual Arts Department at "Haus der Kulturen der Welt" (House of World Cultures), Berlin.

History

 * 2023: Curator of the 5th Bienal de Montevideo
 * 2020: Curator "Invisible Biennale" (online)
 * 2019: Curator of the 4th Bienal de Montevideo
 * 2018: Curator of the 11th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
 * 2016: Curator of the 3rd Bienal de Montevideo, Uruguay
 * 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
 * 2013: 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, 4th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
 * 2002: Chief Curator, 25th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (670,000 visitors)

Curated also:
 * 2023 Studio Drift, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia
 * 2023 A Hunger Artist, Kapellhaus Baku
 * 2022/23 The Fog of War, Baku, Tbilisi, Almaty
 * 2022 Essad Bey's Ordeal, Shirwanshah Palace, Baku
 * 2022: "SILK", Giudecca Art District, Venice
 * 2021: Oriental Heritage, Hamam in Icherisheher, Baku
 * 2021: Haft Paykar, Kapellhaus Baku
 * 2019: The Theft of Fire, Kapellhaus Baku
 * 2019: A Doll's House, Kapellhaus Baku
 * 2018: Géricault's shipwreck, Kapellhaus Baku
 * 2017-18: Ex Africa, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, São Paulo)
 * 2017: The Atlantic Triangle, Lagos, Nigeria as well as Saracura art space in Rio de Janeiro
 * 2017: Vanishing Voices, sound installation of Nigerian languages, Lagos
 * 2017: Hotspot Lagos
 * 2016: The Kula Ring, Galerie Eigenheim Weimar + Theatre Works, Singapore
 * 2016: Jogos do Sul, Centro Helio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro
 * 2016: Club Berlin, Deck Artspace, Singapore
 * 2015: Zeitgeist Berlin, CCBB Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia
 * 2015-16: O papagaio de Humboldt-Indigenous voices, Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Oca (São Paulo), Bienal de Curitiba, Bienal de Asuncion, Bienal de Nuevos Medios, Santiago, HAU 2 (Berlin), Hellerau Dresden, Ramallah
 * 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