Alfons Hug

Alfons Hug 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 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
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
2004: Chief Curator, 26th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil
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"
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, Museu de Arte,, Kunsthalle Berlin, Ludwig Forum, Aachen
1984-87: 10 individual and group shows of Nigerian artists in Lagos
1994: Revendo Brasília, Galeria Athos Bulcão, Museu de Imagem e Som, Palácio Gustavo Capanema, Museu Metropolitano de Arte
1994: Soundscape Brasília, various venues in Brasília
Contemporary African Art
Die Rote Burg – Art from Spain and North Africa
1995: Havanna/São Paulo- Contemporary Art from Latin America
1996: Colours – South African Art
1997: Die anderen Modernen,
1997: Painting from China, Berlin
1998: Biennale de Dakar, co-curator, Contemp. Korean Art,
1999: El Retorno de Humboldt
1999: Internetproject with ZKM : Philip Pocock, Roberto Cabot, W. Staehle
2000: "90x60x90-El síndrome de la Miss", Museo Jacobo Borges, Caracas
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, National Gallery, Jim Thompson Art Center
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
2013: "Miradas insobornables", Buenos Aires
2013: El Aleph, Faena Arts Center, Buenos Aires
2014: BRICS, Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro
2015-16: O papagaio de Humboldt-Indigenous voices, Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Oca, Bienal de Curitiba, Bienal de Asuncion, Bienal de Nuevos Medios, Santiago, HAU 2, 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
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