signs and symbols

The Genie
Jonah Bokaer

Friday, March 6, 2020
7:00pm

Saturday, March 7, 2020
4:00pm

Sunday, March 8, 2020
4:00pm

On March 6th, during New York’s Armory Week, visual artist and choreographer Jonah Bokaer debuts The Genie, a performance that deconstructs the representation of men within the Middle East and North Africa through the emblematic image of a genie. Bokaer’s extensive travels to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Jerusalem, Tunisia, and Pakistan form the basis of the imagery exhibited. The concept for the project was developed while receiving the UNC DisTIL Prize Fellowship, from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Carolina Performing Arts, which allowed Bokaer studio time to literally distill his recent movement vocabulary, on a campus which was turbulently altered by the aftermath of the "Our Three Winners" incidents of violence towards young people on United States soil. Rather than addressing identity politics topically, Bokaer spent two years of site research, and convening community dinners with the individuals, communities, and populations affected by the atrocities. Sometimes through dialogue, sometimes through dance, and sometimes through interpersonal exchange: healing was one result of the two-year project. Many of the community workshops asked the question of what a single wish might involve, for participants — leading to the image of a Genie. The new work is staged site-specifically for signs and symbols, coinciding with his solo exhibition at the gallery About An Arabesque.

jonah bokaer is an interdisciplinary artist working in the fields of choreography, visual art, video, and research. Since 2002, Bokaer has cultivated a new form of choreography merged with visual art and design. He has created over 63 works in a wide range of mediums, such as film, opera, mobile apps, and installation, in a variety of venues ranging from stages, museums, and galleries to architecturally resonant locales. Bokaer has presented works that operate between choreography, visual art, and moving images at many museums including the Guggenheim Museum, MoMA PS1, New Museum, Cooper Hewitt, Museum of Art & Design, MASS MoCa, Musée d’Orsay, Ludwig Museum of Budapest, MAC Marseille, Miami MoCA, IVAM Valencia, Palazzo Delle Arti Napoli, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, Delaware Art Museum, SCAD Museum of Art, MUDAM Luxembourg, and Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. Bokaer is a recipient of a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency (2019), a UNC DisTIL Mellon Foundation Fellowship (2019-2020), the Mohr Prize at Stanford University (2019), among numerous others. His work resides in many private collections and in the permanent public collections of the Parrish Art Museum and Center for Jewish History, New York. In his dance and choreography practice, Bokaer has worked with Merce Cunningham (2000–2007), John Jasperse (2004–2005), David Gordon (2005–2006), Deborah Hay (2005), Tino Sehgal (2008), and many others. He has also interpreted the choreography of George Balanchine as restaged by Melissa Hayden. Bokaer is also a frequent choreographer for Robert Wilson (2007–Present). Jonah Bokaer Choreography, Bokaer’s multi-ethnic dance company, has authored 63 original works produced in 34 nations, 27 American states, and 292 cities across the globe, and is currently exhibiting and touring worldwide with 8 international dancers. In addition to his artistic practice, Bokaer has established a nonprofit practice that has succeeded in delivering 3 permanent arts facilities for younger artists: The Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization which through the support of its Board, generous donors, foundation grants, and government support, the organization has triumphed in crafting and fulfilling a dual mission: to foster the development, research, and presentation of new performance works across disciplines, while establishing affordable art spaces for artists, notably Chez Bushwick (2002) & CPR (Co-Founded 2008), adjacent affordable studios in Brooklyn, and Space 428 Hudson (2016): incubator of The Hudson Eye. Bokaer is Tunisian-American and an LGBTQIA leader.