Joan Jonas: The Juniper Tree

In collaboration with Danspace on three evenings in March 2026, world-renowned artist Joan Jonas will present a new iteration of The Juniper Tree, her 1976 performance inspired by a folktale of the same name. The Juniper Tree has a centuries-long history of being told and retold. Jonas turns to this story as a performance vehicle to explore the various roles women play and how they are represented. In Jonas’s words, “It is an exploration of the self. I look for how the story reflects basic human psychology and behavior while laying bare hidden taboos.”

*About Open Dress Rehearsal: Tuesday evening’s dress rehearsal will be free with RSVP and open to the public at limited-capacity. Open dress rehearsals are a mask-required, community-minded program prioritizing our immunocompromised and low-income audiences. Staff and audiences will be required to wear masks (N95 or KN95) and performing artists (if unmasked) will be  required to test for COVID-19 (rapid tests provided by Danspace Project). This is a first-come-first-served event. Danspace will not hold late seating or a waitlist during Open Dress Rehearsals. Thank you for your understanding.

Joan Jonas (b. 1936, New York, NY) is a world-renowned artist whose work encompasses a wide range of media including video, performance, installation, sound, text, and sculpture. Jonas’ experiments and productions in the late 1960s and early 1970s 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.

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; Haus der Kunst, Munich; The Drawing Center, New York, Gladstone Gallery, New York and Galerie Gisela Capitain, Naples, Italy. The Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted a retrospective of Jonas’s work in 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, Jonas was awarded the prestigious Kyoto Prize, given to those individuals who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural and spiritual betterment of mankind, and in 2024 she was presented with the Nam June Paik Prize, awarded to artists who have contributed to the development of contemporary art, mutual understanding, and world peace. In 2025 Jonas was selected as a medalist in the inaugural Art Basel Awards and received their distinguished Icon Award.