京都賞受賞者のジョーン・ジョナス「Simple Things」展 @ ワコウ・ワークス・オブ・アート Kyoto Prize Laureate in Arts and Philosophy, Joan Jonas "Simple Things" @ WAKO WORKS OF ART

Legendary performance artist Joan Jonas won this year the Kyoto Prize for Art 京都賞, which comes with a whopping 100 million Yen １億円 (around US$900,000) and a 20-karat gold medal. Congratulations Joan!

Exactly 10 years ago I saw her impressive performance at the Yokohama Triennale, where the Japanese art world embraced her with charm and dignity.
Having still the clips in the hair, she was about to clean her hands from the white chalk she had just used on stage, when I approached her to take a single photograph of her smile, her satisfied appearance.

Since then, more opportunities to experience her art works followed, appropriate for this ART+CULTURE website to manifest her practice. Attached snapshots were taken at the US Pavillon of the Venice Biennale 2015, Yokohama Triennale 2008 and two solo shows at her representative gallery in Tokyo, WAKO WORKS of ART. The actual, marvelous exhibition still runs until the 26th of December.
Before Marina Abramović started to be in the limelight of the global art scene, Joan Jonas already achieved critical acclaim amongst her peers in the 70’s. Her pioneering performances with a video camera – she was the first artist to incorporate live video feeds into her work – seems newly relevant in the era of Instagram selfies. Her practice is considered central to feminist art history, may I hereby post two typical scenes.

Mirage at Anthology Film Archives, 1976, NY

Mirror Check, 1970

She resorts to camouflage and deception through onstage masquerades and transformations, delivered unplugged, plain, with scrambled lines, like sketches that haven’t yet found their finished form.
The apparent lineage in coloring, music, space, time transcends her comprehension of gender-related artistic language. Elegantly, with a touch of charming vulnerability, Jonas manages to create an emotional equilibrium, which the viewer enthusiastically tries to de-code.
“Although the idea of my work involves the question of how the world is so rapidly and radically changing, I do not address the subject directly or didactically,” says Jonas, “rather, the ideas are implied poetically through sound, lighting, and the juxtaposition of images of children, animals, and landscape.”
Wonderful words in an era of artificial, stylistic conservatism, especially in Asian countries.
An artist’s voice who commands respect. Chapeau, Joan!

Tokyo, 2018/12/22
Mario A

ジョーン・ジョナス Joan Jonas “Simple Things”
WAKO WORKS OF ARTS
2018/11/17-12/26
11:00-19:00
Closed on Sunday, Monday, and public holidays
106-0032 東京都港区六本木6-6-9、ピラミデビル3F
6-6-9, Piramide Bldg. 3F, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032, Japan
http://www.wako-art.jp/exhibitions/data/2018/simplethings/

Exhibition and performance, next year 2019, in Kyoto:
京都賞受賞記念
ジョーン・ジョナス 個展（タイトル未定）”Joan Jonas”
Exact title of the exhibition is not yet officially announced
2019/12/14 – 2020/2/2
京都市立芸術大学ギャラリー
Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery
KCUA 1, 2, Gallery A, B, C
http://gallery.kcua.ac.jp/exhibitions/20191214_id=16982#ja
English:
http://gallery.kcua.ac.jp/exhibitions/20191214_id=16982#en

Performance on December 12th 2019 @ Rohm Theatre Kyoto
ジョーン・ジョナス パフォーマンス公演
2019年12月12日（木）
会場：ロームシアター京都 サウスホール
https://rohmtheatrekyoto.jp
English:
https://rohmtheatrekyoto.jp/en/

開催中 actually running ジョーン・ジョナス Joan Jonas “Simple Things” @ WAKO WORKS OF ARTS

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Venice Biennale 2015:

Joan Jonas. U.S. Pavilion at Venice Art Biennale 2015

Joan Jonas at Yokohama Triennale 2008

Today’s bonus:
WAKO WORKS OF ART’s press release in September 2008. Critic ICHIHARA Kentaro curated the exhibition “Silence in the Light”.
“The gallery will present early and seminal films and videos by Jonas, as well as new drawings relating to her latest performances, The Shapes, the Scent, the Feel of Things and Reading Dante. This exhibition will be shown simultaneously with the group show “Silence in the Light” with Noritoshi Hirakawa, Hiroshi Sunairi and Arto Lindsay at Wako Works of Art.”

ここに載せた写真とスクリーンショットは、すべて「好意によりクリエーティブ・コモン・センス」の文脈で、日本美術史の記録の為に発表致します。
Creative Commons Attribution　Noncommercial-NoDerivative Works
photos: cccs courtesy creative common sense