Few artists can claim to have started a new art form.
Joan Jonas (New York, 1936), however, was crucial for the formation of two forms of art: video and performance art. Beginning in the late 1960s, Jonas fused various influences (from silent cinema to magic shows) and new technologies (such as portable video cameras and television monitors) to explore the intertwining of the human body and its recorded image.
His video performances raised new questions that, in the 21st century, have only grown in relevance. How do we look at ourselves and others through the video camera? What new types of identities do these electronic images open up or impose on us, and in particular women?
Working in Soho's vibrant arts scene, reflective surfaces/mirrors would be a key motif throughout the artist's career.
In their influential works, performers wore mirrors in front of the audience, who were suddenly confronted with their image, an inversion of the typical relationship between viewer and artist.
For Jonas, the reflected image does more than simply reflect: it projects itself into the world and changes it. While Jonas has mapped out the effects of new technology, he's also looked at longer stories connecting past and pre- being. The strange powers of modern electronics, with their ability to create visual illusion, find their precedents in old folk tales about magical characters and mysterious events.
Accompanied by the moving soundtrack created for the occasion: a bestiary written by Enric Casasses and set to music by the most illustrious com-positors of the country, the work evokes the rich inner life of these animals, as well as their precariousness in the face of a changing climate. As Jonas points out, “from the beginning nature has been a context for my work”: ecological images permeate all stages of his career.
Just as a natural ecosystem recycles what is old into what is new, Jonas' art creates a dynamic, interconnected ecology that continues to evolve.
Concert Al Foyer del Gran Teatre del Liceu Bestiari Based on texts by Enric Casasses With images by Joan Jonas