This article is a reflection on Joan Jonas’ practice inspired by her major show “From Away” which saw five decades of the artists’ work on view at DHC/ART in Montreal. Accompanying this show was a program called “Affinities”, which combined dance, performance, movement, film screenings and dialogue, pivoted around the resonances of Jonas’ work with contemporary artists with whom Jonas collaborated. This article combines dialogue from those artists participating in “Affinity”, audience members and other “key interlocutors” reflect on Jonas’ practice in three distinct “moments” from “Affinities”.

In this text Barbara Clausen engages with revised questions from a 2013 De Appel questionnaire on the evolution and documentation of performance-based artistic practices. Clausen explores the resurgence of the genre in the past decade as well as issues of authorship, originality, recreation and technological advancement (i.e. the internet and social media) as they relate to documenting performances. The article concludes with a discussion of the changing relationship between performance art and institutional spaces.