Joan Jonas

Since the 1960s, Joan Jonas (b. 1936 in New York) has been one of the pioneers of performance art. She was part of the New York art scene that included Richard Serra, Gordon Matta-Clark, John Cage, Philipp Glass, and Merce Cunningham. Her experimental installations involve projections, video, drawings, ambient sound, props, and masks. Based on a number of interviews, the volume provides insights into her artistic oeuvre.

Ever since she represented the United States at the 2015 Venice Biennale, Joan Jonas has been known to a wider European public. In selected conversations she talks about her interdisciplinary approach and about the influences and impulses she absorbed from literature, music, traditional Japanese Noh theatre, and the rituals of foreign cultures. The discussions also touch on her collaborations with the experimental filmmaker Babette Mangolte and the Jazz musician Jason Moran. Yet another focus of this catalogue is on her new works and the live performances on the occasion of her exhibitions in London and Munich.

• One of the most internationally influential protagonists of video and performance art
• Jonas has exhibited regularly at documenta and the Venice Biennale
• Featuring new and classic interviews, including one with Hans Ulrich Obrist