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Joan Jonas: Light Time Tales Details

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Description
Exhibition Materials
Publication
Press Materials
Exhibition Team
Related Events
Interviews

Description

Joan Jonas: Light Time Tales, curated by Andrea Lissoni, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, October 2, 2014–February 1, 2015; traveled to Malmö Konsthall, Malmo, September 26, 2015–January 10, 2016,

Installed in a vast gallery in the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan, Light Time Tales was at the time the most comprehensive museum survey exhibition of Joan Jonas’s works in Italy and the largest exhibition of the artist’s career to date. Curated by Andrea Lissoni with assistant curator Fiammetta Griccioli, Light Time Tales presented ten installations and ten single-channel videos, including a new work, Beautiful Dog (2014), which Jonas conceived specifically for the presentation. The exhibition brought together both historic and recent works in one space: Wind (1968), Paul Revere (1971), Barking (1973), Vertical Roll (1972), Songdelay (1973), Merlo (1974), Mirage (1976/1994/2005), Cones/May Windows (After Mirage) (1976/2011), I Want to Live in the Country (and Other Romances) (1976), Street Scene With Chalk (1976/2008/2010),  Volcano Saga (1985/1994/2011), Revolted by the thought of known places… Sweeney Astray (1994), My New Theater III: In the Shadow a Shadow (1999), Lines in the Sand (2002), Waltz (2003), The Shape, The Scent, The Feel of Things (2004/2006), My New Theater VI: Good Night Good Morning ’06 (2006), Double Lunar Rabbits (2010), Reanimation (2010/2012/2013), and Beautiful Dog (2014). To emphasize the cyclical and open-ended nature of Jonas’s approach to her practice, Light Time Tales displayed these works not chronologically, but thematically. The installation hinged on three main works: Waltz (2003), Mirage (1976/1994/2005), and Reanimation (2010/2012/2013), whose interwoven themes and subjects build on one another.

The Pirelli HangarBicocca building’s former life as a factory until 2004 afforded it generously sized gallery spaces. Light Time Tales was located in the Navate gallery, an undivided space which expanded over 5,500 square meters and a height of approximately 20 meters. Jonas and Lissoni built the exhibition in a snaking, L-shaped pattern. Viewers were able to wend their way through the installations and the sounds from each piece resonated throughout. This unique layout enabled an endless reverberation among the many works, highlighting the cyclical and iterative nature of Jonas’s practice. 

Light Time Tales also featured a number of associated programs. In chronological order, Joan Jonas. Reanimation, a documentary film directed by Rima Yamazaki, was screened on November 6, 2014, and Reanimation was performed on October 21 with musician and Jazz composer Jason Moran, who co-produced the performance with Jonas. On December 4, the Italian artistic duo Invernomuto (comprising Simone Bertuzzi and Simone Trabucchi) presented Invernomuto: Sonic Journey, which invited audiences to sonically experience the musical and cultural world that has shaped Jonas’s work. Two weeks later, on December 18, Lucia Aspesi (a researcher at Pirelli HangarBicocca) screened Performing the Frame. For the fifth program, Joan Jonas: Performing the Difference, Giovanna Zapperi (a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art in Bourges) offered an open lecture on Jonas’s work on January 22, 2015. Later that week on January 28, Irish artist and composer Jennifer Walshe presented Jennifer Walshe. All the Many Peopls, a musical performance curated by Pedro Rocha. 

Almost a year after the closing of Light Time Tales, the artist’s major monograph In the Shadow a Shadow: The Work of Joan Jonas was published by Pirelli HangarBicocca, with Gregory R. Miller & Co. and Hatje Cantz. Edited by Joan Simon, the encyclopedic catalogue contains essays by Douglas Crimp, Barbara Clausen, Johanna Burton, and Joan Simon, as well as an exhibition history of the artist’s oeuvre spanning her early years in the 1960s to 2015. In association with the publication, Pirelli HangarBicocca invited Jonas for a public conversation with Andrea Lissoni on March 9, 2016.

After its run in Milan, Light Time Tales traveled to Malmö Konsthall in Sweden. Curated by Diana Baldon (the director of Malmö Konsthall) and Lissoni, it remained on view September 26 to October 1, 2016, and became the largest exhibition devoted to Jonas’s work in Scandinavia.  

—JK

Bibliographic References

See Exhibition Materials, Publication , Press Materials, and Bibliography for further reading.

Exhibition Materials

Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan

  • Checklist, Joan Jonas: Light Time Tales, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2014. Courtesy of Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan.
  • Didactic texts, Joan Jonas: Light Time Tales, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, 2014. Courtesy of Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan.

Malmö Konsthall, Malmo

  • Checklist, Joan Jonas: Light Time Tales, Malmö Konsthall, Malmo, 2015. Courtesy of Malmö Konsthall, Malmo.

Publication

  • Joan Simon and Joan Jonas, eds. In the Shadow a Shadow: The Work of Joan Jonas. New York: Gregory R. Miller & Co.; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz; Milan: HangarBicocca; Malmo: Malmö Konsthall, 2015. Texts by Johanna Burton, Barbara Clausen, Douglas Crimp, Joan Jonas, Susan Rothenberg, RIchard Serra, and Joan Simon.

Press Materials

Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan

  • Press Release, Joan Jonas: Light Time Tales, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan.

Exhibition Team

Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan

Vicente Todolí (Artistic Director)
Marco Lanata (General Manager)
Andrea Lissoni (Curator)
Fiammetta Griccioli (Assistant Curator)
Valentina Fossati (Curatorial Assistant)
Matteo De Vittor (Staging Manager)
Lucia Aspesi (Research and Documentation)
Giovanna Amadasi (Cultural Strategies and Relations)
Laura Zocco (Educational Department)
Francesca Trovalusci (Development and Promotion)
Valentina Piccioni (Event Management)
Paolo Miano (Project Manager)
Angiola Maria Gili (Press Office Manager)
Stefano Zicchieri (Press and Web Office)

Malmö Konsthall, Malmo

Andrea Lissoni (Curator)
Diana Baldon (Curator)
Fiammetta Griccioli (Assistant Curator)
Anna Kindvall (Coordinator)

Related Events

Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan

  • Joan Jonas, Reanimation, performance with Jason Moran, October 21, 2014.
  • Film Screening: Joan Jonas. Reanimation, a documentary by Rima Yamazaki, November 6, 2014.
  • Invernomuto: Sonic Journey, performance, December 4, 2014.
  • Video Program: Performing the Frame, curated by Lucia Aspesi, December 18, 2014.
  • Joan Jonas: Performing the Difference, lecture by Giovanna Zapperi, January 22, 2015.
  • Jennifer Walshe, All the Many Peopls, performance, January 28, 2015.
  • In the Shadow a Shadow: The Work of Joan Jonas, Joan Jonas in conversation with Andrea Lissoni, March 9, 2016.

Interviews

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