PRESENTATION: Joan Jonas

Through her constant experimentation with performance, video, and installation, Joan Jonas has repeatedly pushed the boundaries of art and influenced numerous generations of artists, establishing enduring relationships of exchange. Haus der Kunst presents the most comprehensive solo exhibition in Germany to date, reflecting Jonas’ collaborative transnational approach and tracing her dynamic practice of transformation between media and time along recurring themes in her work.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Haus der Kunst Archive

Following her studies in sculpture and art history, Jonas was among the founders of performance when it emerged in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s. Joan Jonas’ work is informed by a fundamental interest in the social function of narration and ritual for societies. Since the early 2000s, the artist has been increasingly concerned with current ecological issues in the wake of climate change, placing non-human life forms and eco-systems at the centre of her artistic consideration. In accordance with Jonas’ methodology, in which she updates and medially shifts existing performances or installations, the exhibition at Haus der Kunst does not follow a chronological-linear structure. Rather, it fans out prismatically to sketch the thematic and formal interconnections between the works of different periods. The single channel video “Wolf Lights” (2004-05) hangs under the columns outside the building, illuminating the audiences’ welcome at the entrance of the museum. In the Mittelhalle, the public space at the centre of the house, visitors encounter Jonas’ most recent work, “Rivers to the Abyssal Plain” (2021). Presented for the first time in Europe, the installation introduces the artist´s preoccupation with water as a manifold eco-system as well as her artistic approach to research. The relationship between nature and artistic creation also characterises the multi-media installation at the centre of the exhibition, “Reanimation” (2010/2012/2013). It premiered at documenta 13 and juxtaposes four video projections of sublime shots of Icelandic and Norwegian glaciers with the act of drawing in the snow. The exhibition also brings together other historical key works that mark turning points in Jonas’ œuvre. The installation “Stage Sets” (1976) formulates an expanded, dynamic understanding of sculpture and establishes Jonas’ practice of translating performative practices into manifest exhibition formats. “Juniper Tree” (1976/1994) constitutes the first work by Jonas to be derived entirely from a long-established collective narrative. “Lines in the Sand” (2002) testifies to her continued interest in updating and rewriting mythological narratives against the backdrop of current social developments. Three works from the series “My New Theater” (1997–2006) are reminiscent of a minimalist object, a proscenium stage, and a camera obscura, uniting Jonas’ negotiation of space, illusion, and framing within image production. The exhibition is accompanied by the performance “Mirror Piece I & II” (1969/2018), in which Jonas introduced the motive of the mirror to reveal power structures of the gaze and gender roles. “Mirror Piece I & II” is one of Jonas’ earliest performances and in its original version was influenced by the feminist discourses of his time. Inspired by Broadway choreographies of the 1930s and 1940s, performers formed into collective, frontal arrangements while carrying life-size mirrors. In 2018, the performance was reconstructed and re-adapted for the first time using photographs and notes. The space, the bodies of the performers and the audience are reflected in the mirrors carried by the 15 performers. This creates a visual fragmentation that undermines the illusionary spectacle that objectifies bodies. Through the fragility of the props and the resulting tension, Jonas addresses the power structures of the gaze and gender constructions spread through media images.

Photo: Joan Jonas, They Come to Us without a Word II, performance at Teatro Piccolo Arsenale, Venice, 2015, Photo by Moira Ricci, © Joan Jonas / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022

Info: Curators: lienne Lorz and Andrea Lissoni, Assistant Curator: Elena Setzer, Haus der Kunst, Prinzregentenstr. 1, Munich, Germany, Duration: 9/92022-26/2/2023, Days & Hours: Mon, Wed & Fri-Sun 10:00-20:00, Thu 10:00-22:00, www.hausderkunst.de/