JOAN JONAS
New York, USA, 1936
Stream or river flight or pattern, 2016
Multimedia installation: Two video projections, 26 framed drawings (ink on Japan paper), wall drawings and walls painted in color.
Variable dimensions
Performers: Saverio Bonato, Galia Eibenschutz, Allison Janae Hamilton, Thao-Nguyen Phan
Singer: Allison Janae Hamilton
Production assistant: Elena Mazzi
Video asistants: David Sherman (N.Y.), J. R. González Soutuollo y Laro Sánchez-Palacín (Santander)

Over the course of the past fifty years, Joan Jonas has pioneered a formal language that mixes performance, drawing, as well as video. Her installations are often derived from live performances, although such is not the case with this work, which was produced in part while the artist was directing a summer workshop at Fundación Botín. During that time, she was able to explore the rural landscapes of Cantabria, focusing her interest on remarkable trees – centuries-old chestnut trees and oversized holly trees, among others.

In this work, Jonas used wall painting for the first time, in order to create an environment that evokes a forest inhabited by birds, and stage a two-channel video work that blends references to her extensive travel around the world as well as to her exploration of the rural landscapes of Cantabria. The footage consists of an intricate and layered montage that uses landscapes as backgrounds for her performance but also the one of young artists she directed during the course of the workshop.

For many years, now Joan Jonas has directed her attention to the terrifying effects of humankind’s poor management of natural resources and the enormous damages it has been inflicting upon other species and their environment. Focusing on birds and trees, Jonas has also elaborated an immersive environment in which to reflect upon what could be understood as a natural landscape nowadays.