Political engagement is rarely viewed in terms of forgiveness. The willingness to confront injustice—to name and identify it—is by its nature a bold act. But since injustice (and justice) are controversial concepts that involve highly polarized parties—the accuser and the accused—forgiveness encompasses a vast range of emotions and procedures, and constitutes one of the most complex forms of human commitment.
The first step in this process is a review: what actually occurred needs to be established both historically and emotionally. With history never completed, the work of remembering becomes an act of the present and a blueprint for the future. In considering the work of German artist Anselm Kiefer, art historian Andreas Huyssen states that it examines the “unbearable tensions between the terror of German history and the intense longing to get beyond it.” It is in this confrontation between the past and the future where forgiveness lies.
This year many of the Vera List Center’s programs are dedicated to the activity of “Considering Forgiveness.” Offering neither calls for forgiveness nor a granting thereof, participants examine this form of commitment in interdisciplinary terms.
View events from Fall 2005 or Spring 2006.
* Lecture
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl
Notions of Forgiveness in the Work of Hannah Arendt
September 19, 2005 - 6:30 p.m.
Hannah Arendt wrote seven dense, suggestive pages in The Human Condition about “the power to forgive.” Along with “promise,” she positioned forgiveness as one of few social initiatives that allow people to move beyond traumatic experiences. In this lecture, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl comments on Arendt’s reflections and then builds upon them, raising questions about the implicit psychology and their political meanings today.
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, a New York-based psychoanalyst, was Hannah Arendt’s doctoral student at The New School and then her biographer. A second edition of Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World has recently been published by Yale University Press.
* This event launches the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness,” and acknowledges The New School’s own history where Arendt taught from 1967 until her death in 1975.
Panel Discussion
Bends in the Road: Looking Forward and Back Along New York’s Grand Concourse
September 22, 2005 - 6:30 p.m.
Audiocast
The Grand Concourse, the great boulevard of the Bronx, celebrates its 100th birthday in 2009. The Grand Concourse was always more than a street. In 1906, it was an optimistic gesture of faith in New York City’s growth. Its design married architectural ambition with planning innovation, and the Concourse quickly became a magnet for real estate development and social aspiration. Today, it is the center of a vibrantly multiracial community and remains a powerful symbol of the Bronx identity and experience, and several new projects point toward a new era of prosperity.
Architectural historian Francis Morrone describes how the Grand Concourse has evolved; architect Kevin O’Connor unveils Arquitectonica’s design for the first major new building on the Concourse in thirty years, a new home for the Bronx Museum of the Arts; artist Pablo Helguera introduces his latest project, a public mediation on the Concourse’s famed Paradise Theater, and lifelong Concourse resident Sam Goodman (an urban planner in the office of the Bronx Borough President) imagines a grand future for the Grand Concourse. Moderated by Ned Kaufman, consultant and director, Pratt Institute’s Historic Preservation Program.
Moderator:
Ned Kaufman, historical preservation expert
Panelists:
Sam Goodman, urban planner and Concourse resident
Pablo Helguera, visual artist
Francis Morrone, architectural historian
Kevin O’Connor, Arquitectonica
Co-sponsored by the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, and The New School Institute for Retired Professionals.
Panel Discussion
Nazar: Contemporary Photography in the Arab World
September 28, 2005 - 7:00 p.m.
Webcast
This panel coincides with the first exhibition presented at Aperture Foundation's new Chelsea gallery. “Nazar” was organized by the Norderlicht Festival, the Netherlands, and features 18 artists from 17 Arab nations, many of them seen in the United States for the first time. The paucity of cultural material in the West about this part of the world today has contributed to widespread misunderstanding and pigeonholing, exacerbated by headlines reminding us constantly of conflict, violence, and discord. Recent events notwithstanding, contemporary artists living in Arab countries are fully engaged in cultural dialogues with each other as well as with their colleagues worldwide.
Moderator:
Isolde Brielmaier, assistant professor, Vassar College, and contributor to “Nazar,” publication and exhibition
Panelists:
Wouter Deruytter, artist (Belgium)
Lalla Essaydi, artist (Morocco)
This panel is part of the Aperture Foundation Lectures: “Confounding Expectations II: Photography in Context,” and is presented in collaboration with the Aperture Foundation, Parsons School of Design and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.
* Panel Discussion
Dreamland or Nightmare? The Future Development of Coney Island and its
Community
October 10, 2005 - 6:30 p.m.
Webcast: Part 1; Part 2
Gallery presentation during panelist discussion
"Dreamland or Nightmare?..." October 10, 2005
This panel discussion focuses on the role of art and artists in the community development plans currently slated for the Coney Island amusement park area and its surrounding neighborhood. With an eye towards setting a real agenda for including art and community well-being in local development, the panel addresses successful and unsuccessful attempts to integrate the arts into expansion plans. By concentrating on the environmental, economic, and restorative power of the arts, the specific planning process in Coney Island will be considered within local initiatives, city-wide development trends and national case-studies to demonstrate how unique communities such as Coney Island can retain their historical and cultural significance
as beneficial partners in their own future economic development.
Moderator:
Aaron Beebe, Curator, Coney Island USA
Panelists:
Anne Pasternak, Director, Creative Time
Rikki Abzug, Assistant Professor, Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy
Robin Nagle, Professor of Urban Anthropology, New York University
Peter Dorsey, Senior Designer and Project Manager, Acconci Studio
Kate Collignon, Senior Project Manager, NYC Economic Development Corporation
Co-organized by Coney Island USA, the Wolfson Center for National Affairs and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School
* This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
* Panel Discussion
Emerging Creative Voices from Pakistan: A Political Context
October 11, 2005 - 8:00 p.m.
Question-and-answer session
after panel discussion
October 11, 2005
Now more than ever, strong creative voices are emerging from Pakistan, especially those of women. Artists, writers, and filmmakers are producing remarkable works that often are critical of both Pakistani politics and those of the West.
How can we account for this creative moment? And what does it mean for the future of Pakistan and its creative culture? These are some of the topics that are being addressed in this panel moderated by Pakistani historian Ayesha Jalal. Informed and inspired by the current exhibition “Karkhana,” which features a series of works by six contemporary Pakistani artists, the panel encourages dialogue about current Pakistani culture and politics.
* This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
Moderator:
Ayesha Jalal, political scientist and historian
Panelists:
Mohsin Hamid, author of the acclaimed novel Moth Smoke
Nusra Latif Qureshi, Pakistani painter based in Melbourne, Australia
Anna Sloan, writer, curator, and historian of Islamic and South Asian Art
This panel is co-sponsored by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, where the
exhibition “Karkhana: A Contemporary Collaboration” is on display until March 12, 2006. Art AsiaPacific is the media sponsor.
* Exhibition
"I Beg Your Pardon." or the Reestablishing of Cordial Relations
October 15, 2005 - 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and
October 16, 2005 - 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Reception: October 15, 2005 - 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
(top) Entrance to the exhibition
(mid) Ashley Hunt, "Undeliverable Address"
(bottom) Installation view of room 410
In the current political environment saturated by political aggression and segregation along various power lines, processes of reconciliation and forgiveness have been strategically used as tactics for political and social manipulations. For this two-day exhibition at The New School, artists were asked to contribute a statement, video, image or text to address the possibilities of “Reestablishing of Cordial Relations” or “Forgiveness” in the context of their work and political environment.
* This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
Organizer:
Andrea Geyer
Works by the following artists, many of whom will be present:
Ayreen Anastas/Rene Gabri
Nancy Brooks Brody
Matthew Buckingham
Discoteca Flaming Star (Cristina Gomez Barrio & Wolfgang Mayer)
Ulrike Feser
Benj Gerdes
Jennifer Hayashida
Sharon Hayes
Maryam Jafri
Jesal Kapadia
H. Lan Thao Lam/Lana Lin
Cristóbal Lehyt
Tara Mateik
Ulrike Mueller
Taisha Paggett/Ashley Hunt
Katrin Pesch
Yvonne Rainer
The Speculative Archive (Julia Meltzer/David Thorne)
Emily Roydson
Valerie Tevere
James Tsang
US Urban Subjects (Sabine Bitter/Jeff Derksen/Helmut Weber)
Film Screening and Reading
Innocents Lost: Film Program and Book Signing with Jimmie Briggs
October 20, 2005
Film screening - 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Reading and Reception - 6:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Screening Repeated - 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
It has been estimated that, at any given time, as many as 300,000 children, many girls as well as boys, are employed in armed conflicts around the world. Jimmie Briggs is an adjunct professor in The New School’s Bachelor’s Program. For seven years, he has been researching the plight of these young combatants in Uganda, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Colombia, and Afghanistan. He is an award winning author whose new book Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War will be released by Basic Books in fall 2005. Innocents Lost is a personal and powerful examination of the lives of child soldiers and war-affected children.
The program begins with a screening of topical documentary films curated by Michelle Materre, member of the core faculty of the New School Bachelor’s Program. The screening includes the critically acclaimed
The Flute Player (by Jocelyn Glazer), excerpts from the upcoming California Newsreel theatrical release
The Hero (by Zeze Gamboa), and short films by Jimmie Briggs.
Participants:
Jimmie Briggs, author and professor, The New School
Michelle Materre, film curator and consultant, faculty member, The New School
This event is co-sponsored by the New School Diversity Committee, the Humanities Department, the Media Studies and Film Department, and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics.
Lecture
"Public Art Fund Talks" with Roni Horn
November 7, 2005 - 6:30 p.m.
Now in its tenth year with a new title, the Public Art Fund has produced this ongoing lecture series of presentations and discussions by some of today’s most influential artists, critics, and curators, including Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, Rachel Whiteread, Matthew Barney, Gabriel Orozco, Pipilotti Rist, Tony Oursler, Catherine David, Kasper Konig, Okwui Enwezor, and Lynne Cook. For more information, please call the Public Art Fund at (212) 980-3942.
Presenter:
Roni Horn, artist
Presented by the Public Art Fund in association with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.
Panel Discussion
Constructed Realities
November 9, 2005 - 7:00 p.m.
Webcast
Ever since Picasso pasted scraps of cardboard and metal together in 1908 to create a three-dimensional guitar, artists have been creating objects and environments in furtherance of their aesthetic visions. During the last two decades, many photographer/artists have taken full advantage of the potential of imaging technologies to create entire worlds, with frequently striking results. Some of the most original practitioners of this kind of art will be brought together for the panel.
Moderator:
Lesley Martin, Executive Editor of Books, Aperture Foundation
Panelists:
Catherine Chalmers, artist
Simen Johan, artist
Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick, artists and long-time collaborators
This panel is part of the Aperture Foundation Lectures: “Confounding Expectations II: Photography in Context,” and is presented in collaboration with the Aperture Foundation, Parsons School of Design and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.
Panel Discussion
The Dayton Peace Accords—10 Years On
November 11, 2005 - 6:30 p.m.
As we struggle with the issues of nation-building, humanitarian intervention and terrorism, what can we learn from Bosnia's vicious war and its unsettled peace?
Photographs by Leslie Fratkin
from "Sarajevo: Self Portrait,"
announce the panel discussion
In "Dayton, 10 Years On," Richard Holbrooke, architect of Bosnia's Dayton peace plan, and a group of distinguished writers among them David Rieff and Chuck Sudetic will consider these issues at a panel discussion to be moderated by Tom Gjelten, national security correspondent for NPR and the author of Sarajevo Daily: A City and its Newspaper Under Siege
Moderator:
Tom Gjelten, journalist
Panelists:
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke
David Rieff, writer
Laura Silber
Chuck Sudetic, journalist
Presented by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, on occasion of the exhibition “Sarajevo Self-portraits: The View From Inside” at the Peer Gallery from October 17 through November 19.
* Performance and Panel Discussion
Pia Lindman: Embodiments and Monumentality
November 12, 2005
Performance: “The New York Times Performance for The Orozco Murals” - 2:00 p.m.
Panel Discussion: “Embodiments and Monumentality” - 2:30 p.m.
Artist Pia Lindman re-enacts gestures of grief traced from images off the pages of the New York Times in her piece “The New York Times Performance for The Orozco Murals.” Lindman aims to interrupt the fictional continuity claimed by self-contained images, and to illuminate some of the relationships between a photograph, its mediation, and the idea of original content. Isolating and transferring these images to a different context—in this case The New School’s former dining room, with political frescoes by Mexican muralist Jose Clemente Orozco from 1931—she points to their theatrical and media-based origin.
This process evokes French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard, who described the politics of remembrance and representation as the process of forgetting, in the sense that it disfigures the past by turning it into the politics of the present.
The panel discussion addresses the representations of human bodies, death, and violence, and the relationship of such images to monumentality. It will examine the implications of re-enactments to historical and monumental representations. The speakers will also interrogate the ambivalent spaces between violence and its representation, where the gestures of the body are neutralized by representations that seek to install them in a specific political context.
Artist:
Pia Lindman
Panelists:
Pia Lindman, artist and Fellow, Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT
Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli, political scientist and Fellow, Harvard University
Nato Thompson, Curator, MassMoCA
* This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
Lecture
"Public Art Fund Talks" with Do-Ho Suh
November 21, 2005 - 6:30 p.m.
Now in its tenth year with a new title, the Public Art Fund has produced this ongoing lecture series of presentations and discussions by some of todays most influential artists, critics, and curators, including Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, Rachel Whiteread, Matthew Barney, Gabriel Orozco, Pipilotti Rist, Tony Oursler, Catherine David, Kasper Konig, Okwui Enwezor, and Lynne Cook. For more information, please call the Public Art Fund at (212) 980-3942.
Presenter:
Do-Ho Suh, artist
Presented by the Public Art Fund in association with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.
* Conversation
On Healing and Memory—AA Bronson in a Conversation with Gregg Bordowitz and Elizabeth A. Povinelli
December 3, 2005 - 4:00 p.m.
On Healing and Memory poster.
AA Bronson (left) with Gregg Bordowitz
“My practice starts with my hands. When I put my hands on your body, I get information. That's where I begin, with my hands on your body on my massage table. We talk. I get an idea of you and your energy and your particular needs; a sort of psychic reading.”
—AA Bronson
A unique opportunity to hear one of the great figures of American conceptual art, and to have his practice illuminated by one of the key critics of the genre, Gregg Bordowitz. Eminent anthropologist Elizabeth A. Povinelli will offer a reprise of their conversation that will touch on death, memory and healing.
A founding member of the legendary Canadian art group General Idea, AA Bronson began his training as a healer in 1989, when his two partners in General Idea, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal, were first diagnosed with AIDS. His intention was to act as a kind of midwife to the dying. Five years after their death in 1994, Bronson started to exhibit again, now under his own name. By 2003, he was incorporating his work as a healer back into his artwork, with exhibitions at Galerie Frederic Giroux in Paris (2003) and John Connelly Presents in New York (2004), and in his performance "Butt Massage Demonstration" the same year. His work has also been seen at the Vienna Secession, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the List Visual Arts Center at MIT, and the Power Plant in Toronto.
Gregg Bordowitz is a writer, film and video maker. He teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is the author of "The AIDS Crisis Is Ridiculous" (among other publications). Elizabeth A. Povinelli is a Professor of Anthropology at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Columbia University and is Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Culture.
Prior to the conversation, Bronson will conduct free one-on-one “healing sessions” with volunteers (off-campus, and by appointment).
* This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
"Public Art Fund Talks" with Josiah McElheny
December 5, 2005 - 6:30 p.m.
Now in its tenth year with a new title, the Public Art Fund has produced this ongoing lecture series of presentations and discussions by some of todays most influential artists, critics, and curators, including Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, Rachel Whiteread, Matthew Barney, Gabriel Orozco, Pipilotti Rist, Tony Oursler, Catherine David, Kasper Konig, Okwui Enwezor, and Lynne Cook.
Josiah McElheny is a New York-based sculptor. His exhibitions include The Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art (2000), and a solo exhibition at the White Cube Gallery, London (2003). For more information, please call the Public Art Fund at (212) 980-3942.
Presenter:
Josiah McElheny, artist
Presented by the Public Art Fund in association with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.
Performance
My Neck Is Thinner Than a Hair: A History of the Car Bomb in the 1975-1991 Lebanese Wars; Volume 1: January 21, 1986
December 6, 2005 - 8:00 p.m.
The Atlas Group,
Nassar, 2005 (detail)
On 21 January 1986, a car bomb exploded in the Furn Ech Chubak district of Beirut, one of 245 that were to shake Beirut at regular intervals during the years of the 1975-1991 Lebanese civil war. My Neck is Thinner Than a Hair is part of an on-going investigation by The Atlas Group into the events and experiences surrounding the use of car bombs in the Lebanese wars. The Atlas Group examines the multiple dimensions—social, political, economic, military, technological, psychological and epistemic—of the wars and investigates the public and private discourses surrounding the 3,600 car bombs that were detonated during this period.
For the past year, artists Tony Chakar, Bilal Khbeiz, and Walid Raad have been working on the first volume of this multi-volume project. This research will result in a 70-minute mixed media presentation/performance about and around the events, experiences, forms, and objects of the car bomb that was detonated in the Furn Ech Chubak area. Walid Raad is the 2004/2005 Vera List Center Fellow.
Presenter:
Walid Raad, artist
This project is co-produced by The Atlas Group (Beirut / New York), Ashkal Alwan (Beirut), Kunsten Festival des Arts (Brussels), House of World Cultures (Berlin), Spectacles Vivants, Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.
Panel Discussion
Confounding Expectations 2: Art Photography Now
December 7, 2005 - 7:00 p.m.
Webcast: Artist's talks; Q & A.
Timed to coincide with the U.S. release of the new book Art Photography Now, this panel considers some of the most compelling and innovative photography currently being made.
Photography helped shape art in the late twentieth century; in the twenty-first, it has begun to dominate it. Not only are major international museums and galleries devoting blockbuster exhibitions to the medium, but artist-photographers are also being celebrated as contemporary masters and their work commands unprecedented prices.
Art Photography Now is a stunning survey that presents the work of seventy-six of the most important and best-loved artist-photographers in the world today. Including Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall, Sophie Calle, Wolfgang Tillmans, Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, Gregory Crewdson, Boris Mikhailov, Inez van Lamsweerde, Katy Grannan, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Sam Taylor-Wood, to name a few.
Moderator:
Susan Bright, author, UK independent curator
Panelists:
Gregory Crewdson, artist, and others
Katy Grannan, artist
Laura Letinsky, artist
This panel is part of the Aperture Foundation Lectures: “Confounding Expectations II: Photography in Context,” and is presented in collaboration with the Aperture Foundation, Parsons School of Design and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.
Panel Discussion
Zero Culture. What’s Happening to the Arts at Ground Zero?
December 12, 2005 - 7:30 p.m.
Why have culture and memorial diverged? Why must we choose one or the other?
The acceptance of a master plan for the World Trade Center site in 2003 has not made it immune to intervention, discussion and debate. The ongoing challenges to rebuilding the site, focused on issues of design and security, have most recently polarized the areas of culture and memorialization. Culture, ordinarily the bedrock of remembrance, is estranged from the current planning, and even thought by some to desecrate the site.
The recent expulsions and withdrawals of cultural institutions slated to occupy the site urgently foregrounds the questions that engage this panel, and the citizens of New York: What is at stake in this latest edition of the “culture wars”? What are the implications for daily life, livelihoods, and the vitality of New York City? Is “culture” integral or an appendage to the revitalization and redevelopment of Downtown Manhattan?
Moderator:
Paul Goldberger, Dean, Parsons The New School of Design
Panelists:
Tom A. Bernstein, President and Co-founder, Chelsea Piers
Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem
Hans Haacke, artist
Mike Wallace, historian and director, The Gotham Center for New York City History
Bob Yaro, President, Regional Planning Association
* Screening and Conversation
Poetics Become Law: A Screening and Conversation between
Attorney Lynne Stewart & Artist Paul Chan
December 15, 2005 - 7:00 p.m.
On February 10, 2005, Lynne Stewart was convicted of providing material support for a terrorist conspiracy. She is the first lawyer to be convicted of aiding terrorism in the United States. Stewart faces thirty years of prison and will be sentenced on December 22, 2005.
Artist Paul Chan, who has worked with a number of activist groups, has been working on a video with Lynne Stewart. The video focuses on the relationship between the language of poetry and the language of the law. Stewart speaks both languages, and employs poetry as a “knotting point” to connect ideas of beauty and justice for juries and judges alike. The video takes Stewart’s understanding of poetry and the law as a departure point to explore the possibilities of a poetics capable of articulating the pressures of terror and justice.
Chan will screen a work-in-progress of the video and a short selection of past work. He will then be joined by Stewart to talk about poetics and the law as well as the status of her case.
* This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
Panel Discussion
Curating the Biennial—An Artforum Roundtable
Seven Curators Past and Present Discuss the Whitney Experience
January 23, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
Audiocast
Curating the Biennial Poster
As a first in its 70-year history, the Whitney Biennial 2006 will feature American artists working abroad, foreign-born artists working in the U.S. and those having lived here all their lives. Even before its opening in March 2006, this biennial is being heralded as one that “will take in the world.” (The New York Times).
This panel brings together curators of the upcoming Whitney Biennial, Chrissie Iles and Philippe Vergne, along with several curators of past biennials, to discuss the difficulties inherent in realizing a curatorial concept and coping with the firestorm that follows such an overdetermined event. The dynamics between expectations versus results, or experience versus expectations, will drive the discussion.
Moderator:
Tim Griffin
Panelists:
Chrissie Iles
Klaus Kertess
Louise Neri
Elisabeth Sussman
Marcia Tucker
Philippe Vergne
* Conversation
“Unforgiving Art? Unforgivable Nation?”
January 26, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
Audiocast
Artist Paul Chan in a conversation with Robert Hullot-Kentor
Philosopher Theodor Adorno, responding in his time to the horrors of fascism and world war, described art as holding the promise of happiness, but only if it ruthlessly exposes politics as a language devoid of utopian potential.
Activist artist Paul Chan and philosopher Robert Hullot-Kentor address the problem of what art can be in our time. The idea of forgiveness is central to such a discussion. Given the horrors of new wars and environmental destruction, can art help reconcile differences and mitigate conflicts? Or is art, in its formal beauty, a cruel reminder of how difficult true reconciliation is? Is the aesthetics of Adorno the key to unlocking this dialectic of an unforgiving art and an unforgivable nation?
Participants:
Paul Chan, artist
Robert Hullot-Kentor, Long Island University, and author of Origin is the Goal: Collected Essays on T. W. Adorno (Columbia University Press)
* This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
Panel Discussion
The Public Talks Roundtable: Writers and The Public Theater
February 2, 2006 - 7:00 p.m.
As a part of a year-long celebration of The Public Theater’s 50th anniversary, two generations of Public Theater playwrights gather to discuss their experiences writing for The Public. Participants are John Guare, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Diana Son. Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, moderates. Some of the authors have written new plays for the 50th anniversary season. For more information and a complete schedule of anniversary events, visit www.publictheater.org, or call 212.539.8500.
Moderator:
Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, The Public Theater
Panelists:
John Guare
Suzan Lori-Parks
Diana Son
Sponsored by The Public Theater’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, the Writing Program and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School. The Public Talks is produced by Jayme Koszyn Consulting.
* Panel Discussion
Cultural Genocide and Hegemony: Keys to Political, Economic, Religious and Cultural Domination
February 13, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
Audiocast
The destruction of the
Buddhas of Bamiyan,
Afghanistan, 2001
Groups intent on the political, economic and religious domination of others most often neutralize the social, economic, and religious traditions of those whom they wish to control. This practice is known as cultural genocide. The panel will discuss the specifics of such actions today in places like Tibet, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Iraq, with historical reference to past events during the Crusades, in Ancient Babylonia, and the Spanish invasion of the Americas. Panelists will probe why this phenomenon still flourishes, its effects on decimated peoples as well as the benefits, if any, to the dominators.
Moderator:
Martin Mullin, artist and art historian
Panelists:
Greg Tate, cultural critic
Tashi Wangdi, representative in the Americas of HH the Dalai Lama
Elizabeth A. Sackler, Founder and President of the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation
Co-sponsored by the Wolfson Center for National Affairs at The New School.
* This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
Panel Discussion
Confounding Expectations 3: Photography in Context
What Makes An Image Iconic?
February 15, 2006 - 7:00 p.m.
Audiocast
Diane Arbus’s twin girls, Arnold Newman’s portrait of Stravinsky, Richard Avedon’s fashion model with elephant are three examples of iconic images-pictures that stay in the mind as representative not only of their creators, but of a culture. What qualities make a photograph’s impact last? Is it possible to predict which of the thousands of new images that assail us daily will someday be deemed “great”?
Moderator:
Diana Edkins, Director of Exhibitions and Limited-Edition Photographs, Aperture
Panelists:
Anthony Bannon, Executive Director, George Eastman House
Celso Miguel Gonzales Falla, Chairman, Aperture Board of Trustees, Prominent Collector
Rick Wester, Director, photography department, Phillips de Pury Auction House
This panel is part of the Aperture Foundation Lectures: “Confounding Expectations III: Photography in Context,” and is presented in collaboration with the Aperture Foundation, Parsons The New School for Design and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School with generous support from the Kettering Family Foundation and the Henry Nias Foundation. This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
The Social and
the Real Event Poster
Panel Discussion and Book Party
The Social and the Real
February 27, 2006 - 6:00 p.m.
In celebration of The Social and the Real, a book chronicling political art of the 1930s in the Western Hemisphere, the editors, Alejandro Anreus, Diana Linden, and Jonathan Weinberg will present material from the book and field questions. The panel will be followed by a reception and book signing.
Panelists:
Alejandro Anreus
Diana Linden
Jonathan Weinberg
Presented by in collaboration with Penn State Press.
Panel Discussion
The Public Talks Roundtable: The Public Theater Goes to War
March 9, 2006 - 7:00 p.m.
Webcast
Writers, directors, designers, and performers who have been part of productions that address war and its discontents talk about the spirit of their times and how theater can effect change. Panelists include Jessica Hagedorn, Brett C. Leonard, and David Rabe with others to be announced. Bill Goldstein, adjunct professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, moderates. For more information and to see the complete schedule of anniversary events, visit www.publictheater.org or call (212)539-8500.
Moderator:
Bill Goldstein
Panelists:
Jessica Hagedorn
Brett C. Leonard
David Rabe
Sponsored by The Public Theater’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, the Writing Program and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School. The Public Talks is produced by Jayme Koszyn Consulting.
The SculptureCenter Lectures at The New School
A Subjective History of Sculpture—with Paul Pfeiffer
March 13, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
(also April 24 and May 1)
Sculpture is a medium-in-motion, eluding concise definition. As artists continuously re-invent its rules, materials, and conventions, we are challenged to incorporate new understandings of what, in fact, constitutes a sculpture. Linked to urbanism, architecture, and acoustic and visual perception, it is a charged territory that mirrors political, social and technological developments.
Images illustrating
Paul Pfeiffer's lecturer
As part of exploring how contemporary artists think about sculpture, SculptureCenter, in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, presents artist-led lectures alongside its exhibition program. In this series, established mid-career artists present specific works, bodies of work, texts, or even personal anecdotes—taken from inside and outside sculpture, and inside and outside “art”—to tell their own story of sculpture’s history. These subjective, incomplete, partial, mis-remembered, or otherwise eclectic histories together examine sculpture’s evolving strategies, behaviors, dreams, and mistakes over the course of human civilization.
Presenter:
Paul Pfeiffer
Panel Discussion
Confounding Expectations III: Photography in Context
Things as They Are, Photojournalism Today
March 22, 2006 - 7:00 p.m.
Does photojournalism now belong to the history books, or is it in the process of dynamic reinvention? Presenting multiple perspectives on the development of photojournalism over the last fifty years, this panel will discuss photojournalism, the press, and new directions in picture story telling. The panel marks the publication of Things as They Are—Photojournalism in Context Since 1955.
Moderator:
Chris Boot, U.K Publisher and packager of Things as They Are
Panelists:
Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, renowned photojournalists, who work as a team
Michele McNally, Director of Photography, New York Times
Susan Meiselas, photographer
Mary Panzer, historian and author of Things as They Are
This panel is part of the Aperture Foundation Lectures: “Confounding Expectations III: Photography in Context,” and is presented in collaboration with the Aperture Foundation, Parsons The New School for Design and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School with generous support from the Kettering Family Foundation and the Henry Nias Foundation. This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Lecture
“Public Art Fund Talks at The New School,” with John Currin
March 28, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
Public Art Fund Talks is an ongoing series of discussions and presentations by some of today’s most influential artists, critics, and curators.
Based in New York City, John Currin has exhibited in many exhibitions including over twenty solo shows including John Currin organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago which traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art (2003) and a works on paper show organized by the Des Moines Art Center which traveled to the Milwaukee Art Museum (2003). His work is the subject of a new monograph co-published by Rizzoli and Gagosian Gallery in 2006.
Speaker:
John Currin
Organized by the Public Art Fund in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics
Performance
The Borough Arts Bash: Celebrating Manhattan’s Creative Communities
March 30, 2006 - 7:00 p.m.
A special evening of music, dance, film/video and theatrer honoring the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s 2006 community arts grantees and funders. This event celebrates over $300,000 in awards to nearly two hundred artists and arts organizations from throughout the borough of Manhattan.
Presented by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and co-sponsored by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics.
* Film Screening and Discussion
The Last Supper
April 3, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
Directors Mats Bigert and Lars Bergstrom
The Last Supper (2005, in English, 66 mins.), a film documenting some of the rituals, histories and cultural parameters for the global custom of last meals offered to prisoners before execution, will be presented on occasion of the Vera List Center’s year-long cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.” The two Swedish filmmakers, Mats Bigert and Lars Bergstrom, will be joined in a discussion of the creation of the film and its political implications by Brian Price, the protagonist of the film and chef of 218 “last suppers” served in U.S. prisons, and Terri Gordon, assistant professor in comparative literature at The New School.
The conversation will touch on the difference between killing and letting die as elaborated on by French philosopher Michel Foucault. Foucault talks about the shift in power from the centralized monarch to decentralized modern society, a shift from the monarch’s right to kill (symbolized by the sword) to a system of bio-politics where the state instead has the ability to let live or die.
Panelists:
Mats Bigert, filmmaker and contributing editor, Cabinet magazine
Terri Gordon, Assistant Professor in Comparative Literature, with join appointment at The New School for General Studies and University Humanities
Brian Price, author (Meals to Die For, 2005) and co-host of “Here Comes the Light,” a Christian prison outreach radio program in Texas. Price is the principal protagonist in the film.
Organized by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, in collaboration with Cabinet magazine.
* This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
* Film Screening and Discussion
The Prison Industry: Artistic Approaches to Activism
April 7, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
One of the primary goals in the punishment of crime has been the hope for reform. Today, however, the role of the prison as a place for rehabilitation, growth, and personal advancement appears obsolete. Since the privatization of the United States prison system in the 1980’s, the system has become a vast $40 billion-a-year industry, the most elaborate in the world. At a time when the U.S. has achieved the highest rate of imprisonment per capita in the history of the world—in which, for instance, one in four African American men are under correctional supervision—the American public is slowly awakening to an unprecedented crisis of mass incarceration.
Ashley Hunt, Bridge near
Orleans Parrish Prison, 2005
Investigating notions of punishment and imprisonment, repentance and acquittal, this discussion addresses the prison industry, focusing on artistic approaches to activism and reform. The evening’s program will begin with a screening of “I Won’t Drown on that Levee and You Ain’t Gonna’ Break My Back” (USA, 2005) by Ashley Hunt which uses the New Orleans prison crisis as a case study and a point of departure for a larger crisis in incarceration and rehabilitation.
Moderator:
Kenyon Farrow, activist and writer
Panelists:
Ashley Hunt, artist and activist
Trevor Paglen, artist, writer, and experimental geographer working out of the Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley
Temporary Services, artist collaborative, represented by Salem Collo-Julin
* This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
Lecture
“Public Art Fund Talks at The New School,” with Rodney Graham
April 18, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
Public Art Fund Talks at The New School is an ongoing series of discussions and presentations by some of today’s most influential artists, critics, and curators.
Rodney Graham is based in Vancouver, Canada. His exhibitions include “Sons et Lumieres” at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris France (2004), “Golden Oldies of Music Video” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2003), and a solo exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, England (2002). For information, call Public Art Fund at (212) 980-3942.
Speaker:
Rodney Graham, sculptor, based in Vancouver, Canada
Organized by the Public Art Fund in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics
The SculptureCenter Lecture Series at The New School
A Subjective History of Sculpture—with Trisha Donnelly
April 24, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
Audiocast
Sculpture is a medium-in-motion, eluding concise definition. As artists continuously re-invent its rules, materials, and conventions, we are challenged to incorporate new understandings of what, in fact, constitutes a sculpture. Linked to urbanism, architecture, and acoustic and visual perception, it is a charged territory that mirrors political, social and technological developments.
As part of exploring how contemporary artists think about sculpture, SculptureCenter, in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, presents artist-led lectures alongside its exhibition program. In this series, established mid-career artists present specific works, bodies of work, texts, or even personal anecdotes—taken from inside and outside sculpture, and inside and outside “art”—to tell their own story of sculpture’s history. These subjective, incomplete, partial, mis-remembered, or otherwise eclectic histories together examine sculpture’s evolving strategies, behaviors, dreams, and mistakes over the course of human civilization.
Speaker:
Trisha Donnelly
The Sculpture Center Lecture Series at The New School
A Subjective History of Sculpture—with John Armleder
May 1, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
Audiocast
Sculpture is a medium-in-motion, eluding concise definition. As artists continuously re-invent its rules, materials, and conventions, we are challenged to incorporate new understandings of what, in fact, constitutes a sculpture. Linked to urbanism, architecture, and acoustic and visual perception, it is a charged territory that mirrors political, social and technological developments.
As part of exploring how contemporary artists think about sculpture, SculptureCenter, in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, presents artist-led lectures alongside its exhibition program. In this series, established mid-career artists present specific works, bodies of work, texts, or even personal anecdotes—taken from inside and outside sculpture, and inside and outside “art”—to tell their own story of sculpture’s history. These subjective, incomplete, partial, mis-remembered, or otherwise eclectic histories together examine sculpture’s evolving strategies, behaviors, dreams, and mistakes over the course of human civilization.
Speaker:
John Armleder
Lecture
“Public Art Fund Talks at The New School,” with Sarah Sze
May 2, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
The Public Art Fund Talks at The New School is a ongoing series of discussions and presentations by some of today’s most influential artists, critics, and curators.
With Sarah Sze, sculptor, based in New York City. Her group exhibitions include 010101: Art in Technological Times at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2001), and solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art (2003) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2002). Sze was honored as a MacArthur Fellow in 2003. Now in its eleventh year, with a new title, Public Art Fund has produced this ongoing lecture series of presentations and discussions by some of todays most influential artists, critics, and curators, including Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, Rachel Whiteread, Matthew Barney, Gabriel Orozco, Pipilotti Rist, Tony Oursler, Catherine David, Kasper Konig, Okwui Enwezor, and Lynne Cook. For information, call Public Art Fund at (212) 980.3942.
Speaker:
Sarah Sze, sculptor, based in New York City
Organized by the Public Art Fund in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.
Panel Discussion
Confounding Expectations 3: Photography in Context
Photography Education Today: An Exploration of How we are Creating a New Generation of Image-Based Artists
May 3, 2006 - 7:00 p.m.
Audiocast
There are many who believe that an artist cannot be taught, just encouraged. Others maintain that, apart from learning basic skills, aspiring photographers can be helped to understand contemporary photographic discourse. How are young photographers being taught today?
Moderator:
Michelle Bogre, Chair of the Photography Department at Parsons The New School for Design
Panelists:
John Divola, Chair of the Photography Department at University California, Riverside Robert Thall, Chair of the Photography Department at Columbia College, Chicago
This panel is part of the Aperture Foundation Lectures: “Confounding Expectations III: Photography in Context,” and is presented in collaboration with the Aperture Foundation, Parsons The New School for Design and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School with generous support from the Kettering Family Foundation and the Henry Nias Foundation. This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
* Film Screenings and Discussions
Rwanda—Understanding Conflict through Film
PART I: Hotel Rwanda, with director Terry George
May 4, 2006 - 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Hotel Rwanda director Terry George
on location (center)
Hotel Rwanda is director Terry George’s graphic, harrowing and widely honored film based on the true life heroism of Paul Rusesabagina during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The screening will be followed by a question and answer session between George and Carol Wilder, Associate Dean and Chair, Department of Media Studies and Film, The New School.
Participants:
Terry George, filmmaker
Carol Wilder, Chair, Department of Media Studies and Film, The New School
Presented as part of the 2006 Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival.
Rwanda—Understanding Conflict through Film
PART II: Examining Post-Conflict
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
This program, introduced by Alison Des Forges, examines the role of documentary film in raising awareness of rebuilding processes after catastrophic ethnic conflicts, specifically the effects of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Filmmaker Anne Aghion will be joined in a post-screening discussion by Des Forges, a senior adviser at Human Rights Watch and expert witness in numerous trials at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as well as Stella Umutoni, a global peace and unity advocate hailing from Rwanda.
Pre-Event Screening - 5:00 p.m.: Anne Aghion’s influential film Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda?(55 mins., 2002) captured the testimonies of both survivors and killers in the remote community of Ntongwe, as the government was preparing the Gacaca tribunals, a new system of citizen-based justice intended to handle over 100,000 genocide suspects languishing in detention.
Screening - 6:45 p.m.: Aghion returns two years later with In Rwanda, We Say...The Family That Does Not Speak Dies, (55 mins., 2005) as close to 16,000 suspects, still untried, are released across the country. Having confessed to their crimes and having served the maximum sentence the Gacaca tribunals would eventually impose, perpetrators of appalling crimes are sent home to plow fields and fetch water alongside the people they victimized.
Hotel Rwanda Panelists
Allison Des Forges (left) and Stella Umutoni
Screening - 7:45 p.m.: The Rwandan genocide left the country nearly 70% female, handing Rwanda’s women an extraordinary burden and an unprecedented opportunity. An inspiring story of loss and redemption, Kimberlee Acquaro’s 2006 Academy Award-nominated God Sleeps in Rwanda (28 mins, 2006) tells the story of women survivor’s spirit to overcome the genocide’s devastating legacy. The film follows five courageous women as they rebuild their lives, and, in doing so, redefine women’s roles in Rwandan society.
Participants:
Anne Aghion, filmmaker
Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to the Africa division of Human Rights Watch
Stella Umutoni, activist
* These events are presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”
* Panel Discussion
Reclaiming the Land: Conversations on Collaboration
May 24, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
Acknowledging the conditions arising from harmful past land uses and evolving methods to address them, landscape architects, artists, scientists, educators, engineers, lawyers and civic leaders have embarked on efforts to reclaim and reuse polluted lands. This conversation will address such topics as toxic pollution, waste disposal, reclamation design, public lands and urban renewal, looking at the potential for innovative collaborations that engage in contemporary land patterns and processes.
Moderator:
Niall Kirkwood, Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Director, Center for Technology and Environment, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Participants:
Alan Berger, Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Design; author of Reclaiming the American West
Chris Reed, Stoss Land