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The Critical Matter of Performance: Duets, Part 2
New Museum Colloquium
Cover Image:
Robert Longo, Untitled (Rick), from the series Men in the Cities, 1979–1983. Charcoal and graphite on paper, 96 × 60 in (243.8 × 152.4 cm). Courtesy the artist and Metro Pictures, New York
In the spirit of current calls for a general strike against the current administration on February 17, we conceive of this event as a day of critical and necessary reflection and planning. We offer this as a generative platform for thinkers and artists who have been involved in or aligned with activism, and hope it is a crucial contribution to “no business as usual.”
We will hold space in the New Museum’s lobby from 1:30–2:30 p.m., where museum visitors will be invited to take the mic and share their own responses to the call of a general strike.
The New Museum, in partnership with the NYU Center for the Humanities and the Sense of Performance Project at Yale University, presents the inaugural New Museum Colloquium from February 16 to 18, 2017. Entitled “The Critical Matter of Performance,” this three-day think tank will convene historians and theorists of performance, dance, and visual art, as well as choreographers, theater artists, visual artists, and performers to explore the relationship of criticism to live art through multiple registers—across time, space, bodies, politics, and institutions. Organized by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Tavia Nyong’o, Johanna Burton, and the New Museum’s Department of Education and Public Engagement, the colloquium will feature presentations and discussions with keynote presenters including Rizvana Bradley, Tania Bruguera, Malik Gaines, Jack Halberstam, Jenn Joy, Thomas J. Lax, Simone Leigh, and Wu Tsang, with special guest speaker Robert Longo.
The format of the colloquium brings together keynote presenters with a focus group of ten to fifteen emerging scholars and critically engaged performing artists (chosen through an application process administered by the organizers and in consultation with the presenters). Public sessions complement a number of closed-door discussions. The public sessions include a “long table” conversation with audience and participants, moderated by the organizers; a series of “duets” in which two presenters are asked to consider the same topic from their different professional or disciplinary perspectives and to respond to each other in dialogue with the audience; and an off-site reading with participants from the colloquium.
The deadline for applying to be part of the New Museum Colloquium focus group is Tuesday, January 17. Emerging scholars and critically engaged performing artists are encouraged to apply. Please see the PDF for application instructions.
In a time of political extremes and unthinkable circumstances, it is more imperative than ever to question the relationship between bodies, actions, critical thought, and institutions. Throughout the colloquium, participants will consider criticism—in its various forms, formats, and temporalities—as a contingent material of performance culture. To both record and disseminate critical responses born from the colloquium, written reflections from keynote presenters and focus group participants will be collected as material for a related publication.
Schedule of Public Sessions
Thursday February 16
SCREENING & LONG TABLE
7 PM: Screenings by Tania Bruguera, Malik Gaines, Simone Leigh, and Wu Tsang
7:45 PM: Long Table (led by Johanna Burton, Julia Bryan-Wilson, and Tavia Nyong’o)
Friday February 17
PART 1
11–11:30 AM: Arrival and Welcome
11:30 AM–1:30 PM: Duets, Part 1
“Haptics” with Rizvana Bradley and Simone Leigh
“Political Gestures” with Tania Bruguera and Jack Halberstam
1:30–2:30 PM: Break
PART 2
2:30–3 PM: “The Unthinkable,” a mid-program review and conversation (led by Johanna Burton, Julia Bryan-Wilson, and Tavia Nyong’o, with special guest speaker Robert Longo)
3-5 PM: Duets, Part 2
“Choreographies” with Jenn Joy and Wu Tsang
“Archives and History” with Malik Gaines and Thomas J. Lax
5–5:30 PM: Wrap-Up/ Discussion Session
Saturday February 18
7 PM: “Adult Contemporary”: Off-site readings by participants (La Mama La Galleria, 47 Great Jones St.)
About New Museum Colloquiums
New Museum Colloquiums are an outgrowth of the New Museum Seminars program that ran from 2013–2016 and provided a weekly platform for post-graduate level inquiry in a peer-led, seminar-style setting. The new think tank format seeks to produce a space that can support a similar level of inquiry in a more immersive and concentrated period of time, with public and private sessions operating in close dialogue.
Sponsors
Lead support for New Museum Colloquiums is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Additional support for The Critical Matter of Performance is provided by the NYU Center for the Humanities and the Sense of Performance Project at Yale University.
Support for Education and Public Engagement programs is provided, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Endowment support is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; the Skadden, Arps Education Programs Fund; and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs at the New Museum.
