Andrea Lissoni Interview March 2019

Interview

Andrea Lissoni Interviewed by Barbara Clausen, March 22, 2019.

Andrea Lissoni is the artistic director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich; before coming to Munich Lissoni was the senior curator of international art at Tate Modern, a curator at HangarBicocca, and also a lecturer at the Brera Academy and Bocconi University. In this interview Lissoni speaks about his work as a curator with Joan Jonas.  

Transcript

• “Andrea Lissoni Interviewed by Barbara Clausen, March 22, 2019 (Interview Transcript).” Joan Jonas Knowledge Base, Artist Archives Initiative, 2021.

Abstract

The interview begins with Lissoni speaking how he became aware of Joan’s work and recalling when the two first met [01:38–07:59]. He then talks about how an exhibition he curated on Mike Kelley would become the springboard for a Joan Jonas show at HangarBicocca and why Joan would be the best artist to exhibit [08:27–15:03]. This then develops into a conversation about how Lissoni was able to work with the artist and director to make decisions and able to bring Mirage to the foreground [15:04–17:08]. From here, Lissoni speaks about encountering the works of Jack Smith, who was an inspiration to Jonas [17:09–20:11]. He also mentions that he and Jonas wanted to think about works like Reanimation that had not been seen so often and present them as they were intended to be seen [20:31–23:37]. When Lissoni moved to Tate Modern he reinstalled Reanimation in 2018 for her show there and it is seen by Jonas as one of the most ideal presentations of that piece; from [23:28–28:43] Lissoni touches on the process of preparing the show. He then brings up two main problems they had when installing the show and one pleasure [29:18–32:05], which then turns to Lissoni speaking about finding the perfect places for the projections and floor plans [32:06–37:42, 40:41–43:02]. Focusing on the floor plans for Reanimation, the two discuss how the piece required a spiral movement and how Lissoni was able to create this sense of rotation to the viewer [37:43–40:40]. Next, Lissoni talks about not showing Reading Dante but only the projection of the Purgatory [Street Scene With Chalk] [43:03–47:14]. He is then asked if he wanted to show Organic Honey and if he felt that Jonas made a lot of adjustments [47:15–49:11]. Lissoni later explains how they changed some of the pieces slightly, such as Volcano Saga and My New Theater and why they decided to go with single-channel works for some and not others [49:41–54:00]. The interview turns to who came up with the title of the exhibition [54:01–54:46] and the two technical teams who worked on the show [54:47–57:26], which turns into a conversation about sound in the exhibition [57:08–59:50]. The exhibit also included performances by Jonas and numerous events for the public, from [59:51–1:04:55] Lissoni sheds some light on the programming that came along with this exhibition. Once the show was over at HangarBicocca it traveled to Malmö Konsthall, here Lissoni explains if he planned the curatorial floor plan already with Malmö in mind [1:04:56–1:06:19]. The interview ends with Lissoni giving advice for curators who want to work with Jonas or show her work in the future [1:06:20–1:08:12].