SEARCHING FOR THE LOCUS AMOENUS
Photo Performance
Searching for the Locus Amoenus is a photographic performance series by Jônatas, created in the aftermath of his painting series Made of Blood & Gold. Set against the wooded terrain of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the series stages the artist as a wandering figure—part pilgrim, part prophet—bearing the symbolic and physical weight of exile. Clad in taled and tefillin, and carrying personal relics from his earlier installation In Thy Tent I Dwell—a weathered leather briefcase and worn shoes—the artist enacts a ritualized search for the locus amoenus, a mythic refuge of harmony and belonging. Central to the series is a handmade bull mask, evoking multiple layers of meaning: as a visual echo of the red heifer once used in Temple-era purification rites, it gestures toward themes of sacrifice, messianic longing, and the return home. At the same time, the bull invokes Spain’s national iconography and its historical cruelties—especially the spectacle of bullfighting, reframed here as a metaphor for the destruction of strength, dignity, and identity during the Iberian Inquisition. Subtle references to the sambenito, the pointed hat forced upon accused heretics, further ground the work in a response to rising antisemitism and global displacement. Through this performance, Jônatas collapses past and present, myth and memory, creating a meditation on migration as both historical trauma and sacred quest—a restless search for meaning, place, and redemption.
Detailed Viewing: