Brent Biennial 2025: FIRE Ritual – I Can't Go On. I'll Go On. Alfredo Jaar

About the event

Join us on a walk from Kensal Green to Kilburn to activate Alfredo Jaar's artwork I Can't Go On. I'll Go On. We'll be following the ancient route for pilgrims, traders and explorers, and marking locations of community interest - where we will share this proclamation with the public as a collective gesture of resistance and hope.

I Can't Go On. I'll Go On, Alfredo Jaar

This is a project based on a direct quote from Samuel Becket's 1953 novel The Unnamable. These seven words are in fact the last words of the book.

In the artist's view, this statement perfectly reflects our state of mind in today's dark times. Most of us are probably pessimistic intellectually, but still optimistic, at least with our will. Because we have no choice.

Its public presentation is an act of resistance, an act of hope, inviting the audience to use these words as a hopeful lament.

You can see the work on display outside Kensal Green station (639 Harrow Road, London, W10 4RA) and 147A Kilburn High Road (London, NW6 7HT) between 22 September – 5 October 2025On 1 October Alfredo Jaar will give a talk about his work at Ambika P3 as part of Brent Biennial 2025, and be in discussion with curator Annie Jael Kwan and artists Abbas Zahedi and Yarli Allison. Sign up for that event here.

About the artist

Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect, and filmmaker who lives and works in New York. His work has been shown extensively around the world. He has participated in the Biennales of Venice (1986, 2007, 2009, 2013), Sao Paulo (1987, 1989, 2010, 2021), and Gwangju (1995, 2000, 2020) as well as Documenta in Kassel (1987, 2002). The artist has realized more than seventy-five public interventions around the world. Over eighty monographic publications have been published about his work. His work can be found in most major museum collections worldwide. He received the Hiroshima Art Prize in 2018 and the Hasselblad Award in 2020. This year he was selected as the recipient of the 2025 Edward MacDowell Medal.

Brent Biennial 2025: FIRE Ritual

FIRE Ritual takes place from 26 September to 12 October 2025, centring on metamorphosis, loss, rage and regeneration. FIRE ignites and mutates, and this chapter of the Biennial explores how creation and destruction can forge new paths through collective acts of remembrance and transformation.

Fire is a tool, both revered and feared. A glowing hearth calls us home, to safety and sustenance. Gentle embers create warmth, while a blazing flame provides illumination and a force for change. Its power is exponential, and the insurgencies and profligacies of fire threaten destruction. Fire symbolises the potential for creation and destruction. It challenges the notion that structures should last forever, and instead speaks to transferences of im/materiality across dimensions.

FIRE Ritual forms part of the programme for Brent Biennial 2025. Titled Bones, stones, and calling the four elements, the Biennial is curated by Annie Jael Kwan, and unfolds across a series of four elemental rituals – WATER, EARTH, FIRE and AIR – at four Brent sites - a public reservoir, a park, an old medical facility and a university campus. Located in the north and south of the borough— Harrow, Wembley and Kilburn— the ‘rituals’ will feature 28 artists presenting workshops, talks, performance and exhibition.

FIRE Ritual is presented by the Brent Biennial 2025 in partnership with Metroland Cultures, with the support of Arts Council England, Brent Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Granville Community Kitchen and Something Human

For more information visit : https://metrolandcultures.com/events/brent-biennial-2025/