Joan Jonas: I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances) Book Launch • Screening • Discussion with Artist EAI and AFTERALL invite you to join us for a special evening with Joan Jonas, celebrating the launch of a new Afterall Book by Susan Morgan: Joan Jonas, I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances).

Tuesday, April 17, 2007 6:30 pm Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) 535 West 22nd Street, 5th Floor New York, NY 10011 Admission free RSVP: info@eai.org Presented in collaboration with ICFAR Curated Conversations, University of the Arts London.

"I didn't see a major difference between a poem, a sculpture, a film, or a dance. A gesture has for me the same weight as a drawing: draw, erase, draw, erase--memory erased." -Joan Jonas EAI and Afterall present a screening of Joan Jonas's 1976 video work, I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances), which Morgan's new book explores. Jonas will be present to introduce and talk about this haunting nonlinear video narrative. Following the screening Susan Morgan will lead a Q & A with Joan Jonas. The evening will conclude with a reception during which Morgan's new book will be available for purchase. The video I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances) unfolds like a dream as Jonas examines loss, displacement, time, and memory. Jonas creates a poetic theater of meditation in this nimbly structured elliptical narrative. Revealing frames within frames and monitors within monitors, the artist is both the observer and the subject of observation in this murmured story of the unconscious. Susan Morgan describes Jonas's approach to video as a drawing tool, an endless mirror and a framing device. In her new book, Morgan takes the reader through the exterior and interior scenes that comprise Jonas's work and considers how the artist has used performance and video since 1968 to explore ways of seeing, the inherent rhythms of ritual and the archetypal authority of objects and gestures. ___________________________________ Joan Jonas An acclaimed multi-media performance artist, Joan Jonas is also a major figure in video art. Jonas has performed and exhibited her work extensively throughout the world. In 2004 she was honored with a retrospective at the Queens Museum of Art in New York, entitled Joan Jonas: Five Works. She has had major retrospectives at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland, and Stadtsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. Other one-person exhibitions and performances include the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; San Francisco Museum of Art; University Art Museum, Berkeley, California; Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, and Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York, among others. Joan Jonas lives and works in New York City. ___________________________________ Susan Morgan Susan Morgan is a writer based in Los Angeles, California and Edinburgh, Scotland. From 1979-1991 she was, with Thomas Lawson, the co-editor of Real Life magazine, an alternative art publication based in New York. A former contributing writer for Interview, Mirabella and Elle, she is currently a contributing editor at Metropolitan Home. The author of Martin Munkacsi (Aperture, 1992) and Edward Weston: Portraits (Aperture, 1995), Morgan is a recipient of the Center for Creative Photography's Ansel Adams Research Fellowship. ___________________________________ About Afterall Afterall is a research and publishing organization based at Central Saint Martins, London and California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles. Afterall Books investigate the social, aesthetic, and theoretical contexts of contemporary art, considering both the work itself and its effect on a wider cultural debate. These beautifully produced and richly illustrated publications present critical analysis of contemporary artists' ideas and intentions and consider the impact and ongoing influence of the works they produce. www.afterall.org ___________________________________ About EAI Founded in 1971, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is one of the world's leading nonprofit resources for video art and interactive media. EAI's core program is the international distribution of a major collection of new and historical media works by artists. EAI's activities include a preservation program, viewing access, educational services, online resources, and public programs such as exhibitions and lectures. The Online Catalogue provides a comprehensive resource on the 175 artists and 3,000 works in the EAI collection, including extensive research materials. www.eai.org Please visit EAI's new project, The Online Resource Guide for Exhibiting, Collecting & Preserving Media Art, a comprehensive source for information on single-channel video, computer-based art, and media installation: http://resourceguide.eai.org Electronic Arts Intermix 535 West 22nd Street, 5th Floor New York, NY 10011 (212) 337-0680 tel (212) 337-0679 fax info@eai.org