In the series of installations entitled Ennoia (2002) the artist immersed herself for many hours in a concrete tub filled with water. The receptacle resembled an octagonal font. A camera hung below the ceiling registered the performance and the image was screened on a wall. The projection was accompanied by sounds from below the surface of the water.
In the past years Weiss realized many large scale projects, which started out with collective drawing sessions of the artist and visitors of galleries or passersby. The artist calls her method of drawing an attempt at "sketching the world".
In 2004 the work entitled Limen/Meadow (Achea Rheon) was created. The word limen (threshold) is of Greek origin – leimon means meadow in that language. The term is connected to the artist’s interest in the meanings of such things as areas, the surfaces of water and earth, paper and boundaries in the context of skin. Achea Rheon (River of Sadness) is one of the five mythological rivers separating Hades form the world of the living. On a large part of the floor of a gallery the artist laid hundreds of layers of white gazette paper. In various places in the gallery small containers with water were placed. During the performance, which lasted for a few hours, the artist lay on the paper meadow outlining the contours of her body and slowly moving herself. The surface of the paper was gradually being destroyed as it was covered with black lines and stains. The viewers were invited to join the performer and leave traces of their own bodies on the surface. The meadow of white paper slowly turned into a three-dimensional form, which underwent constant changes.
In 2006 the artist realized the large scale public project Drawing Lethe at the World Financial Centre Garden in New York. The participants were invited to lie down on the ground, which was covered with a white cotton fabric. They were to create drawings, which would surround their bodies. The action was accompanied by music composed by Monika Weiss and by a video projection, which transmitted the image from a camera placed above the area of the performance. The collectively created drawing consisted of small fragments added by subsequent participants of the event, which lasted for a few days. The title of the work referred to Lethe – the river of forgetfulness from Greek mythology – and was used as a metaphor of being outside of time.
I liked the feelings of fluidity and ephemerality which accompanied this project, although at the same time the drawing remained something concrete – a holy place with figures of people, who came and went – said the artist.
Before creating each work Monika Weiss conducts meticulous research, often collaborating with historians or archivists. Her Phletegon-Silence (2005) and Keimai 3 (2008) are linked to specific historical events. In order to prepare them Weiss gradually collected original documents, mainly German, from the thirties of the 20th century. The records were later used to build sculptural collages, which the artist confronted with her own body in performative actions. Keimai 3 was inspired by the biography of Helene Mayer, a German fencer of Jewish origin, who was invited by Hitler to participate in the Olympic Games in 1936. In this work Weiss created a parallel between drawing and fencing. She has said that she is "interested in limits, limitations, and in constructing compositional rules (…). I open the boundaries of drawing or sculpture towards the unknown, towards the newly recognized form".
The idea of penetrating reality by means of art is an important characteristic of Monika Weiss’ work. By using various media the artist tries to find continuity between the present and cultural tradition, between the here-and-now presence and history and memory. Her works merge symbolism, which brings to mind medieval art, with the formal simplicity of minimalism. She often employs her own body in performative realizations (which the artist also calls performative installations) in order to create drawings or carry out actions resembling rituals from the past.
