Mar 29, 2024, 6:30 PM – 8 PM , Conversation

In Conversation: Joan Jonas and Shirin Neshat in celebration of Snakes and Butterflies

Join us for a conversation with Joan Jonas and Shirin Neshat on Jonas' Snakes and Butterflies, a special limited edition print portfolio published by Noire Edition/Gallery in collaboration with Giulia Theodoli. Jonas and Neshat, who published projects with Noire Editions in 2018 and 1998, will have a wide-ranging conversation on the arc of their practices of artmaking, storytelling, ritual, and drawing.

Created during the production of The Shape the Scent the Feel of Things (2004-2007), Jonas' edition includes images of snakes and butterflies, taken from a sketchbook with pages inspired by the writings of the German art historian Aby Warburg (1866 - 1929). Warburg's writings documented his visits to the southwest of America, during which he experienced the rich culture of the indigenous populations of that area, namely the Hopi. In particular, Warburg wrote about the snake dance that Jonas would later witness in a Hopi pueblo during her trip to Arizona in the 1960s which she was deeply influenced by.

Snakes and Butterflies is available for purchase in The Drawing Center's bookstore throughout the run of the exhibition Joan Jonas: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.

Noire Editions

Noire Editions was born in Turin in the late 1970s (at the time Marco Noire Editore) as a printing atelier out of profound interest and passion for contemporary art and it has since then published many projects with some of the most renowned international artists.

The printmaking activity comes from a close process of collaboration with artists, with whom different techniques are constantly explored and tested. Since 1984, print projects have been exhibited in the gallery located in the historical district of the city, which subsequently moved to its current location, an old textile factory. The vastness of the space serves as both a gallery and a press room, allowing temporary exhibitions to be exhibited and at the same time, it gives access to the big archive of printing projects.
Noire establishes long-term collaborations with the artists enabling them to build up a comprehensive body of printed work that explores the various aspects of the medium and ties in closely with their oeuvre.

We actively publish editions with a growing roster of international artists, ranging from traditional prints on paper, artist books, multiples utilizing a constantly expanding roster of tools and technologies. Every “Noire”- edition project is preceded by rigorous proofs and experimentation with different processes and materials. In a way to always address in the best way possible: how can a particular idea be reproduced? Which craftsman applies the care and knowledge needed to produce extraordinary three-dimensional editions? Reproduction creates artifacts that allow us to experience the varied aspects of the immediate present. This possibility inspires artists to create new ideas for editions and multiples and Noire to find the best way to produce them.

Producing editions takes time and Noire takes it. Noire’s innovative vision, approach to work, attentive curated research, and attention to quality, inspire the artists who are involved in the whole editorial process.

Noire’s goal in publishing is to encourage the artist to explore new possibilities that can also extend beyond the boundaries of traditional printing. Behind each edition there are rigorous tests and experiments with different processes and materials.
Noire cherish its historical past and the attention received worldwide up to today. Its goal is to use the deep knowledge acquired throughout the years within the editorial world to inspire the imaginative power of artists’ spirits which will be key to take us to a better tomorrow.

Recently Verlag Der Buchhandlung Walther Konig (Koln) published “Carte Noire”, an homage to the activity of Noire Editions 1980/2015.

Noire editions’ print projects are part of renowned international contemporary art collections, both private and public, among them: Castello di Rivoli-Museo D’arte Contemporanea (Turin), Fondazione Merz (Turin), Fondazione Sandretto Rebaudenfo (Turin), Biblioteca Nazionale per la Grafica (Rome), The Museum of Modern Art (New York), Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), ASU Art Museum (Arizona), MASS MoCA (North Adams,MA), Tate Modern (London), Biblotheque National de France (Paris), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), SMAK (Gent), Fundacion La Caixa (Barcelona), Museo Nacionale Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Madrid), Museum fur Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt), Kunstmuseum

Winthertur( Winthertur), Cabinet des estampes (Genève), Contemporay Art Institute (Villeurbanne), Bonner Kunstverein (Bonn).
Joan Jonas

Born in 1936 in New York, Joan Jonas is an acclaimed video and multimedia performance artist. She received a BA in Art History and Sculpture from Mount Holyoke College in 1958 and an MFA from Columbia University in 1965. In works that examined space and perceptual phenomena, her work merges elements of dance, modern theater, the conventions of Japanese Noh and Kabuki theater, and the visual arts.

Jonas has exhibited and performed extensively around the world. Her notable exhibition history includes Documenta 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, and 13; the 28th Sao Paolo Biennial; the 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennale; and the 13th Shanghai Biennale. She has recently presented solo exhibitions at the United States Pavilion for the 56th Edition of the Venice Biennial; Tate Modern, London; Museu Serralves, Porto; Pinacoteca de São Paulo; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Dia Beacon; and the Haus der Kunst, Munich. The Museum of Modern Art in New York will host a retrospective of her work from March 17 to July 6, 2024. Jonas is the recipient of many awards including The Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon (2016); the Maya Deren Award given by the American Film Institute (1989); and the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2009). In 2018, she was awarded the prestigious Kyoto Prize, presented to those individuals who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural and spiritual betterment of mankind.
Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born artist and filmmaker living in New York. Neshat works and continues to experiment with the mediums of photography, video and film, which she imbues with highly poetic and politically charged images and narratives that question issues of power, religion, race, gender and the relationship between the past and present, East and West, individual and collective through the lens of her personal experiences as an Iranian woman living in exile.

Neshat has held numerous solo exhibitions at museums internationally including the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; The Broad, Los Angeles; Museo Correr, Venice, Italy; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Neshat has directed three feature-length films, Women Without Men (2009), which received the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, Looking For Oum Kulthum (2017), and most recently Land of Dreams, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival (2021).

Neshat was awarded the Golden Lion Award, the First International Prize at the 48th Biennale di Venezia (1999), the Hiroshima Freedom Prize (2005), the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2006) and in 2017, she received the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Award in Tokyo.

She is represented by Gladstone Gallery in New York and Goodman Gallery in London.

Credits

The Drawing Center's Education and Community Programs are made possible by the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc. Major support is provided by the Evelyn Toll Family Foundation and the LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Claire and Theodore Morse Foundation.