The new project untitled (transcriptions of country) investigates the colonial transport, trade and the acclimatisation of Australian native plants, animals and objects, together with the colonisation of associated local Aboriginal knowledge.

Its source of inspiration is the French expedition to the southern lands led by Captain Nicolas Baudin in 1800- 1803. Commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte, this was one of the most extensive scientific expeditions ever undertaken in Australia, which brought back to France many artifacts and living elements.

The exhibition takes on multiple forms to unfold this complex story, central to the artistic approach being the process of translation. Of the plant species brought back by the expedition and preserved at the National Herbarium in Paris, more than 300 specimens were collected in Sydney. These have been reproduced as handmade embroideries by refugee and migrant collectives in Sydney and presented as a new translation of the archive. Sculptures, after imperial crown wreaths but created with Australian materials and portraits of Aboriginal people, are displayed on the walls. A soundscape – inspired amongst other things by a corroboree (an Australian Aboriginal ceremony) as transcribed during the expedition – is broadcast in the space, while a video tells the story of the project and its context. Each body of work highlights how the interpretation and understanding of other cultures can be altered through communication and exchange.

For untitled (transcription of country), Jonathan Jones has carried out extensive research work both in Australia and France – at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, the Museum of Natural History in Le Havre and the Château de Malmaison (where he will benefit from an exhibition at the beginning of 2022). The exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, its first in Europe, will be accompanied by a text by Australian author Tara June Winch in the PALAIS magazine to be published in April 2022. It will be presented in the fall of 2022 at Artspace in Sydney together with a monographic publication.