Alfons Hug

Alfons Hug (born 16 March 1950 in Hochdorf, 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 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 to February 2016 in Singapore. From June 2016 until June 2017 he was again director of the Goethe-Institute in Lagos, Nigeria, and from 2017 to 2023 founding director of the Goethe-Zentrum in Baku, Azerbaijan.

From 1994 to 1998 Hug headed the Visual Arts Department at the House of World Cultures, Berlin.

Work as curator (Biennials)

2002: Chief Curator, 25th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (670,000 visitors) 2003: Co-curator, 4th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil 2003: Curator of Brazilian Pavilion, Venice Biennial 2003: Organizer of "Old Art from Africa", Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (750,000 visitors) 2004: Chief Curator, 26th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (917,000 visitors) 2004: Curator of Brazilian Representation, Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador 2005: Curator of Brazilian Representation, New Delhi Triennial 2005: Curator of Brazilian Pavilion, Venice Biennial 2009: Curator of the Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina 2011: Curator of the Bienal de Curitiba, Brazil 2011: Curator of the Latin American Pavilion, IILA, Venice Biennial 2012: Curator of the 1st. Bienal of Montevideo, Uruguay 2012: Curator of the "BRICS"-project, Kochi Biennial, India 2013: Curator Proyecto "Trapananda", Aysén, Chile 2013: Curator of the Latin American Pavilion, IILA, Venice Biennial 2014: Curator of the 2nd. Bienal of Montevideo, Uruguay 2015: Curator of the Latin American Pavilion, IILA, Venice Biennial 2016: Curator of the 3rd Bienal de Montevideo, Uruguay 2018: Curator of the 11th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil 2019: Curator of the 4th Bienal de Montevideo 2020: Curator "Invisible Biennale" (online) 2023: Curator of the 5th Bienal de Montevideo 2025: Curator of the 6th Bienal de Montevideo

Curated also: 1992-93 : Arte Amazonas, Museu de Arte Moderna (Rio de Janeiro), Museu de Arte, (Brasília), Kunsthalle Berlin, Ludwig Forum, Aachen 1984-87: 10 individual and group shows of Nigerian artists in Lagos 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) 1994: Soundscape Brasília, various venues in Brasília Contemporary African Art (Berlin) Die Rote Burg – Art from Spain and North Africa (Berlin) 1995: Havanna/São Paulo- Contemporary Art from Latin America (Berlin) 1996: Colours – South African Art (Berlin) 1997: Die anderen Modernen (25 Artists from Latin America, Asia and Africa), (Berlin) 1997: Painting from China (organizer), Berlin 1998: Biennale de Dakar, co-curator, Contemp. Korean Art, (Berlin) 1999: El Retorno de Humboldt (Caracas) 1999: Internetproject with ZKM (Karlsruhe): Philip Pocock, Roberto Cabot, W. Staehle 2004: "Carnaval", Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro 2005: "Alegoria barroca na arte contemporânea", CCBB, Rio de Janeiro 2006: Neue brasilianische Fotokunst, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein 2006: "Fußball: Zeichnung auf grünem Grund", CCBB Rio de Janeiro 2007: "Arte da China", CCBB Rio de Janeiro 2007: "Relíquias e Ruinas", Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro 2007-2009: "The Tropics", CCBB Brasília, CCBB Rio de Janeiro, Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin), National Gallery (Cape Town), Jim Thompson Art Center (Bangkok) 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 2009: "Arte da Antártida", Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro 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 2012: "High Tech-low tech": Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte 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) 2013: "Miradas insobornables", Buenos Aires 2013: El Aleph (Anthony Mc Call and Mischa Kuball), Faena Arts Center, Buenos Aires 2014: BRICS, Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro (Art from Brazil, India, China, South Africa, Russia) 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 2015: Zeitgeist Berlin, CCBB Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia 2016: Club Berlin, Deck Artspace, Singapore 2016: Jogos do Sul, Centro Helio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro 2016: The Kula Ring, Galerie Eigenheim Weimar + Theatre Works, Singapore 2017: Hotspot Lagos 2017: Vanishing Voices, sound installation of Nigerian languages, Lagos 2017: The Atlantic Triangle, Lagos, Nigeria as well as Saracura art space in Rio de Janeiro 2017-18: Ex Africa, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, São Paulo) 2018: Géricault's shipwreck, Kapellhaus Baku 2019: A Doll's House, Kapellhaus Baku 2019: The Theft of Fire, Kapellhaus Baku 2021: Haft Paykar, Kapellhaus Baku 2021: Oriental Heritage, Hamam in Icherisheher, Baku 2022: "SILK", Giudecca Art District, Venice 2022 Essad Bey's Ordeal, Shirwanshah Palace, Baku 2022/23 The Fog of War, Baku, Tbilisi, Almaty 2023 A Hunger Artist, Kapellhaus Baku 2023 Studio Drift, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia 2025. "Africa", Yarat Art Centre, Baku