Catherine Wood Interview April 2020

Interview

Catherine Wood interviewed by Barbara Clausen, April 23, 2020.

Catherine Wood is the senior curator for International Art and Performance at Tate Modern and curated Ten Days Six Nights, the live performance program which coincided with Jonas’s 2018 Tate retrospective. This interview focuses on the performance of Mirage at the Tate in 2018 and brings up questions regarding documentation, reinterpretation, and authenticity.

Transcript

• “Catherine Wood interviewed by Barbara Clausen, April 23, 2020 (Interview Transcript).” Joan Jonas Knowledge Base, Artist Archives Initiative, 2021.

Abstract

The interview opens with Wood detailing how she first encountered Jonas’s work through her art historical studies and how she then met the artist in the early 2000s, just as the Tate was planning a performance with Jonas [00:43–01:54]. She mentions the process of bringing in a practice that was not represented in the Tate’s collection at the time [02:50–03:30]. Wood then delves into her writings about Jonas and highlights how Jonas’s practice helped her understand how a new generation of performance artists similarly explored images [03:22–06:21]. This leads into how Wood came to curate the 2018 performance series which included Mirage and how the decision to restage this work was made [06:24–13:25]. Wood then discusses why Mirage was not presented as an installation at the Tate as well as the influence of the exhibition Light Time Tales in Milan and Malmö for her own curatorial work [13:27-14:54]. She also shares her conversations with Jonas about retranscribing and reworking the score for Mirage and about how it could be adapted given her physical condition [15:27–19:04].

The conversation then switches to the role of documentation in the restaging of Mirage: Wood mentions that the Tate staff watched video footage of Jonas’s 1977 performance at Documenta, looked at photographs and met with Paula Longendyke [19:06–21:18]. This conversation also touches on Jonas’s approach to reconstruction and authenticity, highlighting how she never tries to perfectly recreate a performance based on documentation. Wood also brings up questions surrounding the objects used in Jonas’s performances and whether they should be considered as props or artworks by the institution [21:19–26:25]. Shifting gears, Clausen asks Wood about the people involved with the restaging of Mirage within the Tate’s staff [26:26–28:56]. Clausen and Wood also point out Jonas’s work with her close collaborators Elena Mazzi and Nefeli Skarmea [29:04–33:13]. Moving on, Wood goes into detail about the adjustments that had to be made to the Tanks, where the restaging of Mirage took place [33:13–34:54]. This conversation also goes into the rehearsal process for the performance and how the piece was tweaked on site [34:56–37:27]. Although Mirage is not in the Tate’s collection, Clausen asks Wood about some of the issues of collecting performance art: from [37:40–44:12], Wood shares her thoughts on how one could acquire Mirage, which brings up questions of authenticity regarding the input and presence of the artist. Clausen then inquires about the documentation of the performance; Wood explains that the Tate media team shot a video and took photographs to capture the performance as well as the installation, which she deems especially important for Jonas’s work [44:12–45:45]. They then discuss the importance of reaching out to Joan’s frequent collaborators in order to properly reperform the piece [45:47–47:58]. The interview ends with Wood expressing a desire to have more of a debrief with Jonas about her performance and the connection she felt with the Tate’s audience [47:59–51:26].