NEW YORK.- The Night School Public Seminar series at the New Museum continues this fall with a threeday program conducted by artist Paul Chan. Night School is a project by Anton Vidokle in the form of a yearlong school, drawing on local and international artists, writers, and theorists to present monthly seminars, workshops, screenings, and lectures to the public. Chan’s three-day seminar, titled “A Play, Some Pornos, and a Presidential Campaign,” will take place Thursday, September 11th through Saturday, September 13th, touching on a range of topics that have figured deeply into his visual and performance work over the past years. A second Night School program will be lead by Rirkrit Tiravanija the last week of September.
This event is free but tickets are required. Tickets can be reserved online or at the Museum prior to the seminar's start. Visit www.newmuseum.org for more information.
September 11, 7:30 p.m.
Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: an illustrated lecture
In November 2007, Paul Chan, working with New York's Classical Theatre of Harlem and Creative time, staged five free site-specific performances of Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, in two New Orleanian neighborhoods destroyed by the flooding. The performances were part of the larger project which also consisted of a fund to help local rebuilding and reorganizing efforts, and a series of programs through the city. Chan will discuss the organizing and aesthetic ideas around the project and show clips from the performance in the Lower Ninth Ward.
September 12, 7:30 p.m.
A poet for president: Eileen Myles and her run for the White House
In September 1991, legendary New York Poet Eileen Myles launched her write-in presidential campaign, running against George Bush Sr. She writes, “As President he functions as a grand employer who has a complaint box. Each of us may get our two cents in. Once.” Eileen will read a selection of letters and poems from her campaign and talk with Paul about her run and her work.
September 13, 3 p.m.
The Sade I know: screening and lecture
Pornographer, philosopher, and revolutionary, Marquis De Sade remains an indispensable figure in the history of Post-Enlightenment western thought. His books Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and the notorious The 120 Days of Sodom (written during imprisonment) push our understanding of sex, violence, and reason, to unimaginable heights. In this screening, Chan will show clips from three films based on, or inspired by, Sade, including Salo (1975) by Pier Paolo Pasolini, who situates Sadean characters in Fascist Italy, Marquis (1989), a French live animation film featuring a talking penis, and Marquis de Sade (1994), a hardcore adult film starring Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi. In between clips, Paul will discuss Sade’s relevance today in politics, pornography, law, and morality.
The upcoming fall/winter schedule includes:
Night School Public Seminar 7: Paul Chan
Thursday, September 11, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, September 12, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, September 13, 3 p.m.
Night School Public Seminar 8: Rirkrit Tiravanija
Thursday, September 25, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, September 26, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, September 27, 3 p.m.
Night School Public Seminar 9: Natascha Sadr Haghighian
Thursday, October 23, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, October 24, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, October 25, 3 p.m.
Night School Public Seminar 10: Walid Raad and Jalal Toufic
Thursday, December 4, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, December 5, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, December 6, 3 p.m.
Night School Public Seminar 11: Raqs Media Collective
January 2009, dates yet to be determined.
Past presenters of Night School have included Boris Groys, Martha Rosler, Liam Gilliack, Okwui Enwezor, Hu Fang and Zhang Wei and Maria Lind. Lectures, screenings, and conversations take place in the New Museum’s theater and fifth-floor Museum as Hub space, as well as informal locations throughout the neighborhood. Night School seminars are Thursday through Sunday and start on the last Thursday of each month, and began in January of 2008. Most events are open to the public and free with Museum admission. Twenty-five applicants
were selected to form a core group that participates in smaller, private conversations, developing a rapport with each other and the seminar leaders over the year.
The program is organized by artist Anton Vidokle and is the second in a series of art projects he has realized as temporary schools, the first of which was Unitednationsplaza in Berlin (2006-07). Vidokle's commission is part of the Museum as Hub initiative, a new model for curatorial practice and institutional collaboration established by the New Museum to enhance our understanding of contemporary art around the world.
Paul Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1973 and was raised in Nebraska. He lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include the New Museum, New York, 2008; the Serpentine Gallery, London, 2007; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2007; The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 2006–07; and Portikus, Frankfurt, 2006. His work was also featured in important group exhibitions, including the 2006 Whitney Biennial; the 10th Istanbul Biennial,
2007; the 54th Carnegie International, 2004; and the 8th Lyon Biennial, 2008. Chan’s singlechannel videos have been screened in film festivals worldwide, including the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. In November 2007, he collaborated with Creative Time and the Classical Theatre of Harlem to stage free site-specific performances of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot inNew Orleans.
