The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Performers for Mirror Piece I & II by Joan Jonas

The Museum of Modern Art seeks motivated individuals to perform Joan Jonas’s Mirror Piece I & II (1969/2024), included in the exhibition Joan Jonas: Good Night Good Morning, on view March 17 – July 6, 2024.

For more than five decades, Jonas’s multidisciplinary work has bridged and redefined boundaries among performance, video, drawing, sculpture, and installation. The most comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States, Joan Jonas: Good Night Good Morning traces the full breadth of her career, from works that explore the encounter between performance and technology to recent installations about ecology and the landscape. 

Jonas began her decades-long career in New York’s vibrant Downtown art scene of the 1960s and ’70s, where she was one of the first artists to work in performance and video. Drawing influence from literature, Noh and Kabuki theater, and art history, her early experimental works probed how a given element—be it distance, mirrors, the camera, or even wind—could transform one’s perception. 

In the late 1960s, Jonas’s early performances utilized mirrors as props for transforming the perception of space and devices for exploring representation, doubling, and the hierarchies of gender. Mirror Piece I & II reprises Jonas’s groundbreaking early Mirror Piece works, updated and reconstructed from the notes and photographs of Mirror Piece I (1969) and Mirror Piece II (1970).  

In the works, a cast of performers face an audience carrying mirrors and panes of plexiglass in synchronized choreographed motions. The audience, performers, and surroundings are reflected and fragmented in the moving mirrors as the piece unfolds–blurring the boundary between spectator and participant. As Jonas recalls “The mirror was a metaphor for me. A device to alter the image and to include the audience as reflection, making them uneasy as they view themselves in public." This presentation of one of Jonas’s most celebrated works will activate MoMA’s public spaces.

In accordance with the artist’s vision for this work, qualified performers must be comfortable performing in close contact with others, lifting other performers, and carrying props (approximately 20-35 pounds or less). The ability to learn and perform choreography, and enact coordinated movement as part of a group is essential. Background in visual art, dance, or other live arts, and overall passion for the performance experience strongly preferred.

Anticipated performance schedule consists of a 30-minute program, performed twice per day for five days (June 25-26, 28-30, 2024), with individual performer schedules to be determined in accordance with the performance needs. Preparation will take place in June 2024 and include approximately 10-15 rehearsal sessions with the artist’s Movement Director, Nefeli Skarmea, as well as Museum staff. Performers must be available for the full rehearsal and performance period to participate.

The artist's vision for this performance artwork includes a diverse cast representing a wide range of ages, races and ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, backgrounds, and experiences. We encourage all who are interested and qualified to apply.

Please submit a CV and statement of interest indicating your desire to participate and experience, and up to three links to online videos of your movement practice, previous performance work, dance, improvisation, or other relevant work samples, directly to liveprograms@moma.org. Please include “FULL NAME - Mirror Piece” in the subject line. 

Deadline: March 22, 2024.