Six Feet (A Measuring Distance), 2020

Joan Jonas often works on the relationship and distance between audience and artwork. Her mirrors integrate the body of spectators in the artwork. She explores by means of video how she can remove her own body from the artwork. How can the artwork be made or exist without her? 

Six Feet (A Measuring Distance, 2020) is a work that literally plays with distance. During the coronavirus pandemic, ‘6 feet’, almost 2 metres, was the distance in the US that had to be kept between two people. Today, Jonas’ measuring tool has no purpose, post-coronavirus. The artwork is a reminder of the confrontational period in which many people suff ered from isolation and the lack of physical contact. 

Today, this work connects two absent bodies, rather than keeping them apart.

Number 17 on the map.