The Collection
Jenny Holzer's art work For Aros (2022) consists of three white marble benches and a vertical multicolour LED sign measuring nearly three and a half meters in height. Each of the benches is engraved with ten texts from Holzer’s groundbreaking Truisms (1977–79), selected by the artist in close consultation with ARoS curators.
The sign is programmed with selections from some of Holzer’s most iconic text series, including Truisms, Inflammatory Essays (1979–82), Living (1980–82), Survival (1983–85), Mother and Child (1990), and Arno (1996).
Together, these elements form a work of art that responds to ARoS’s unique architecture, countering the ephemeral nature of thought with the permanence of stone and inviting visitors to read, reflect, and rest.
When words are carved in stone, they can be touched, they can be read with the hand, they might be perceived differently than when on the page. Marble and granite lock time while electronic signs and projections signal differently.
In a world full of text messages and tweets, Holzer’s trailblazing work is more relevant than ever. Her work stems from a desire to make art for a broader audience as she transforms written language and invites her viewers to become aware of fixed assumptions and behavioural patterns.
1 / 3 For Aros (2022). ARoS 2023 © Jenny Holzer
For Aros was acquired for the ARoS collection in 2023 with generous support from the Augustinus Foundation.
“The acquisition of Jenny Holzer’s work is of great importance to ARoS, as Holzer, along with Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger, is one of the greatest female artists of the postmodernist generation. Holzer’s political engagement and her practice of exposing the language and consequences of power are as relevant today as they have been for decades.
She is also a major source of inspiration for many of the contemporary artists we showcase at the museum, and we see the acquisition of Holzer’s work as a natural extension of our vision of presenting epoch-making and critically reflective art,” said ARoS’s director, Rebecca Matthews, at the launch of the art work.
Holzer’s Truisms, which are part of For Aros, juxtapose contradictory positions and propositions to generate thoughtful perspectives on social issues, constructs, and beliefs. This philosophical approach encourages an attitude of reflection that can shake up long-held prejudices and intractable habits.
For Aros (2022) is one of ARoS's most prominent art works and is the opening centrepiece of ARoS’s gallery of installation art on Level 0.
About Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) is an artist and political activist with special focus on women's rights. For a number of years, she has been highly critical of her contemporaries' treatment of the position of women and the structural inequality in society.
Holzer's works aim to disrupt the, according to her, overly passive way in which modern human absorbs information without exercising critical judgement and without holding those in power accountable. She sees language as a battleground for disrupting traditional stereotypes and framings of issues such as gender relations, the individual's relationship to institutions of power or the role of art in society.
Holzer is internationally known for her text-based artworks, which occupy urban spaces in a diverse array of forms, from electronic signs to everyday consumer goods to monumental projections onto buildings and landscapes. Often sited in unexpected locales outside the gallery environment, her works instigate a direct encounter between the viewer and the messages presented.
The acquisition of For Aros is made possible with generous support from the Augustinus Foundation and other fundraising initiatives.