Screening & Conversation: Queens Museum’s Sally Tallant with Joan Jonas and Mika Rottenberg
On the occasion of the benefit 'Artists for New York,' that launched online and in our New York galleries in October 2020, we hosted an online screening of two films by artists Joan Jonas and Mika Rottenberg, that was followed by an intimate discussion with Sally Tallant, President and Executive Director of The Queens Museum in Queens, New York.
With performance and multimedia at the core of both artists’ practice, the panel highlighted their respective approaches to creating work, while also addressing the extent to which they imagine New York City and the wider art ecosystem will continue to be reshaped by the pandemic, and this moment in history.
About Sally Tallant
Sally Tallant is the President and Executive Director of the Queens Museum, New York. She was previously the Director of Liverpool Biennial from 2011-2019. From 2001-2011 she was Head of Programs at the Serpentine Gallery, London where she was responsible for the development and delivery of an integrated program of Exhibitions, Architecture, Education and Public Programs. She has curated exhibitions in a wide range of contexts including galleries, museums, public spaces and non-arts contexts. She is a regular contributor to conferences nationally and internationally. In 2018 she was awarded an OBE for services to the Arts in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
About Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas is a world-renowned artist whose work encompasses a wide range of media including video, performance, installation, sound, text, and sculpture. Joan’s experiments and productions in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s continue to be crucial to the development of many contemporary art genres, from performance and video to conceptual art and theatre. Since 1968, her practice has explored ways of seeing, the rhythms of rituals, and the authority of objects and gestures. Joan has exhibited, screened, and performed her work at museums, galleries, and in large scale group exhibitions throughout the world.
She has recently presented solo exhibitions at Hangar Bicocca, Milan; NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore; the United States Pavilion for the 56th edition of the Venice Biennial; Tate Modern, London; TBA21 Ocean Space at the San Lorenzo Church, Venice; and Serralves Museum, Porto. In 2018, she was awarded the prestigious Kyoto Prize, presented to those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural, and spiritual betterment of mankind.
About Mika Rottenberg
Mika Rottenberg is an Argentina-born, New York-based artist Mika Rottenberg is devoted to a rigorous practice that combines film, architectural installation, and sculpture to explore ideas of labor and the production of value in our contemporary hyper-capitalist world. Born in Buenos Aires in 1976, Rottenberg spent her formative years in Israel then moved to the US where she earned her BA from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and followed this with an MFA at Columbia in 2004.
Using traditions of both cinema and sculpture, she seeks out locations around the world where specific systems of production and commerce are in place, such as a pearl factory in China, and a Calexico border town. Through the editing process, and with footage from sets built in her studio, Rottenberg connects seemingly disparate places and things to create elaborate and subversive visual narratives. By weaving fact and fiction together, she highlights the inherent beauty and absurdity of our contemporary existence.
About Artists for New York
Hauser & Wirth is delighted to welcome visitors to our new gallery at 542 West 22nd St, our gallery at 32 East 69 St, as well as on our website to experience ‘Artists for New York,’ a major initiative to raise funds in support of a group of pioneering non-profit visual arts organizations across New York City that have been profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The project brings together dozens of works committed by foremost artists across generations, from both within and outside of the gallery’s program, that will be sold to benefit these institutions that have played a significant role in shaping the city’s rich cultural history and will play a critical role in its future recovery.
‘Artists for New York’ will raise funds to support the recovery needs of fourteen small and mid-scale cultural organizations: Artists Space, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Dia Art Foundation, The Drawing Center, El Museo del Barrio, High Line Art, MoMA PS1, New Museum, Public Art Fund, Queens Museum, SculptureCenter, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Swiss Institute, and White Columns.
