THIS BEAUTY THAT WILL PASS to Premiere at The Wolfsonian–FIU

Pioneer Winter Collective (PWC), will perform this beauty that will pass, a new work commissioned by and created in partnership with The Wolfsonian-FIU as part of their The Geneva Window: A Centenary Celebration event on Friday, October 9. The community is invited to celebrate this treasured icon of the Wolfsonian collection-Harry Clarke's provocative stained-glass Geneva Window-in an evening of conversation and performance held a century after its commission.

The night starts with a free talk by Clarke scholar Róisín Kennedy, who will trace the work's creation and controversial reception, revealing the tension between state-sponsored art and creative expression. Following the talk, audiences will move through the galleries for Pioneer Winter Collective's this beauty that will pass, a new performance responding to the window's literary scenes and its charged interplay of beauty, desire, censorship, and impermanence.

this beauty that will pass is created and directed by Pioneer Winter and features collaborators Lisa Kusanagi, Laurah Merisier, and Winter, with costume design by Mr. Mostacho.

Widely regarded as one of Harry Clarke's most important and controversial commissions, the Geneva Window was acquired by The Wolfsonian in 1988 and returned to view in 2023. The eight-panel stained-glass masterpiece depicts scenes inspired by fifteen works of the Irish Literary Revival. An internationally renowned Irish artist, Clarke was commissioned in 1926 by the newly independent Irish Free State to create a window as a gift to the League of Nations in Geneva. The completed window was, however, rejected-labeled too provocative and "unrepresentative" of the Irish people. A century later, this beauty that will pass revisits the stories embedded in the window and the questions it raises about artistic expression and censorship.