SOUND #7 – JESSICA JESSICA JESSICA


 

 

JOHANNA KOTLARIS

Throughout the month of April, we invite artists from Berlin and from the German and French speaking Switzerland to feature an audio piece as part of the Sound Series, initiated in 2023 by Display. It takes place in the framework of Emilie Ding and Alizée Lenox’s multi-channel sound installation, Move Along Before the Sun Rises, at Neun Kelche. The Sound Series enables both to extend the field of research and explore the diversity of sound works. The Individual proposals take the form of readings, soundtracks and other kind of sound pieces. They are broadcast on the platform www.display-berlin.com. Today, we are glad to present Johanna Kotlaris’ reading, stemming from her book Jessica Jessica Jessica, published in 2024.

 

JESSICA JESSICA JESSICA
Johanna Kotlaris, Jessica Jessica Jessica, 2024, reading, 4 min 30 sec

Jessica Jessica Jessica is Johanna Kotlaris’ first extensive text publication and was published in October 2024 by Jungle Books and Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana in the context of Johanna’s Manor Art Prize exhibition at the museum. It consists of a collection of letters written to Jessica, connected through a narrative framework that Johanna Kotlaris writes from a fictional first-person perspective. Jessica is an empty Instagram profile (0 followers, 0 following and no posts) that has been meticulously tracking the narrator’s activity on the same platform for some time. Since it is not clear who Jessica is, she becomes a projection screen for ever-changing people. The imaginary relationship with Jessica thus changes in the course of the writing: from curiosity to longing, indifference to discomfort at being constantly observed. The result is a narrative that fluctuates between reality and fiction and continues to reflect on the nature of interpersonal relationships, analyzing, examining and testing them and thus constantly laying out new orders. Through the reading of the excerpt—lending her own voice for the occasion—Johanna Kotlaris deepens the inquiry into the mechanisms of projection and fantasy elicited by the flux of images and the social dynamics of social media. Enveloped in city soundscape, the piece also reflects on our relationship with the urban landscape, its architecture, and the political and emotional ties we cultivate with it.

Image: Johanna Kotlaris

Johanna Kotlaris (*1988) is a visual artist, filmmaker and writer based in Zürich and Berlin. Her work examines the complexity of interpersonal relationship dynamics, the various energies that result from these interactions and the ways in which we are responsible for ourselves and others in care and conflict practices. She often creates fictional characters and reacts to site specific contexts to speak about the negotiation of physical and conceptual distances, social injustices and individual and collective traumas. In doing so she also asks how responsibilities are taken or distributed in our society, to create spaces for transformation, healing and new beginnings. Recent solo exhibitions include at Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano (2024); KIOSKO, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia (2023) and Foundation Binz39, Zürich (2021). She was part of group shows and has performed a.o. at Bally Foundation, Lugano (2024); Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris (2024); Gessnerallee, Zürich (2024), Kunsthaus Zürich (2023), Art Genève, Geneva (2022), Les Urbaines, Lausanne (2021); Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich (2021), Kunsthalle Bern (2021), Kunsthalle Zürich (2018) and the National Gallery of Art Vilnius (2017). Awards and grants include: Manor Art Prize (2024), Prix Mobilière (shortlisted, 2022), Swiss Performance Art Award (shortlisted, 2022), UBS Culture Foundation Visual Arts grant (2020), Patronagefonds by Kunstverein Basel (2018 & 2017) and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Award (2013).