Walls and Bridges Season 1

Playlist created by Villa-Gillet | 13 videosSee more playlists »

Friday, January 28th | 6:00pm | Round-table | The New York Public Library - Celeste Bartos ForumWith: Cécile Guilbert, Laura Kipnis, Wayne KoestenbaumHosted by: Paul HoldengräberCo-presented with LIVE from the New York Public LibraryWho has never dreamed of becoming famous? What is in a famous name? Why do we love stars and icons so much and why are we fascinated by them? Aren’t fame and celebrity all relative? In the era of the Internet, do we finally have a good chance to get our 15 minutes of fame, or are we just a few clicks away from suddenly becoming ephemeral stars against our will? Essayist and literary critic Cécile Guilbert has written outstanding essays on icons like Andy Warhol, Guy Debord and Lawrence Sterne, poet and critic Wayne Koestenbaum is the author of Andy Warhol and Jackie Under My Skin: Interpreting An Icon, and cultural theorist Laura Kipnis has recently published How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior.

Sunday, January 30th | 2:00pm | 240 min | Fair | The Brooklyn FleaWith: Laurel Braitman, Barbara Cassin, Cécile Guilbert, Justin E. H. Smith, John Strausbaugh, Sophie WahnichHosted by: Sina NajafiCo-presented with CabinetPicture this: Amid the vendors and bustle of the Sunday Brooklyn Flea, six high-profile creative thinkers will occupy kissing-booth-style structures and engage the public in one-on-one conversation on a topic that few of us stop and think deeply about very often—hair. Aiming to create bridges between specialists and the general public, this “fair for knowledge” is designed to encourage an informal, social, and open mode of learning.Come and brush up on “hair plucking” among anxious captive animals; Mary Magdalene’s hair as described in the Bible; fashion, hairdos, and underwear; hairlessness as a signifier of rationality in the history of philosophy; the exceptional hairstyles of rock stars; shaved women and the symbolic loss of power in the French revolution, and more!Booths designed and produced by Gareth LongTickets: Free. Tips allowed!The Flea at Skylight One Hanson (former Williamsburg Savings Bank) - 1 Hanson Pl (at Flatbush Ave), New York http://www.brooklynflea.com

Monday, January 31st | 9:00pm | Reading and performance | Joe's PubWith: Cécile Guilbert, Cynthia Hopkins, Sarah JonesHosted by: Amanda SternCo-presented with The Happy Ending Music and Reading SeriesWhat happens when an artist “goes public,” when a performer steps on stage? What is the transformation, the transmutation of the identity, from the person to the persona? The Happy Ending Music and Reading Series presents a special evening dedicated to the art , theory and practical application of persona. Through interwoven talks and performances, three dynamic guests—essayist Cécile Guilbert, singer and musician Cynthia Hopkins, multi- character performer Sarah Jones—will investigate how artists strive to cultivate and expose the most elusive and intangible aspects of their public personas.

Friday, January 28th | 1:00pm | Round-table | The New York Public Library - Celeste Bartos ForumWith: D. Graham Burnett, Pierre Cassou-Noguès, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Carrie Lambert-Beatty, Glenn D. LowryHosted by: D. Graham BurnettCo-presented with LIVE from the New York Public LibraryWe are witnessing a remarkable irruption of interventions and confections in contemporary art that can be loosely called "parafictional"—work that wields falsehood in powerful, ludic, and/or disturbing ways. What happens when the tricksterfakery of these artistic cons unsettles the archive itself? Should we be concerned? What are the implications for this convergence of the artist and the forger? French philosophers Pierre Cassou-Noguès and Jean-Pierre Dupuy, author of article Make-Believe: Parafiction and Plausibility Carrie Lambert-Beatty, and director of the MoMA Glenn D. Lowry will tackle issues such as art and politics, virtuality and expertise, and the values of play and seriousness.Tickets: $15/$10 BookingStephen A. Schwarzman Building - 455 5th Ave (at 42nd St), New York http://www.nypl.org/

Saturday, January 29th | 2:30pm | Round-table | The New York Public Library - Celeste Bartos ForumWith: Didier Bigo, Mireille Delmas-Marty, Jeffrey RosenCo-presented with LIVE from the New York Public LibraryThe degree of Western states’ surveillance on their citizens has dramatically increased in the past few years—whether in public spaces or online. The threat of terrorism has generated innumerable precautions, but what is the price for freedom in a post-9/11 world? French experts on international law Mireille Delmas-Marty and Didier Bigo will discuss these issues with prominent commentator on legal affairs Jeffrey Rosen.Tickets: $15/$10 BookingStephen A. Schwarzman Building - 455 5th Ave (at 42nd St), New York http://www.nypl.org/

Saturday, January 29th | 5:00pm | Round-table | The New York Public Library - Celeste Bartos ForumWith: Scott Atran, Grégoire Chamayou, Ariel Colonomos, Philip GourevitchHosted by: Ann StolerCo-presented with LIVE from the New York Public LibraryThere is always an other, but must there always be an enemy? Is there a need for an enemy in the solidifying of social groups? Thinkers and writers from very different backgrounds will share their analyses: Philip Gourevitch has written extensively on Abu Ghraib and Rwanda, Scott Atran has studied the making of suicide bombers, Grégoire Chamayou has just published a philosophical work on the peculiarity of man hunting, and Ariel Colonomos is investigating the idea of preventive war.Tickets: $15/$10 BookingStephen A. Schwarzman Building - 455 5th Ave (at 42nd St), New York http://www.nypl.org/

Wednesday, February 2nd | 7:00pm | Round-table | The New School - John Tishman AuditoriumWith: Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Jonathan Lear, Michel Lussault, Josh NeufeldHosted by: Mark Greif, Marco RothCo-presented with n+1Catastrophes are the nightmare flipside to the record of human progress and achievement. The idea of disaster haunts how we think about our lives on every level, from global planning to individual relationships. Could planning more for catastrophes help eliminate/neutralize them, or do already we give them more attention than appropriate? Will we, no matter our precautions, forever be victims of the vagaries of nature and existence in all its complexity? If so, how may we learn to live and think with and within the expectation of catastrophe?Inventor of the concept of “Enlightened Catastrophism” Jean- Pierre Dupuy, author of Radical Hope Jonathan Lear, geographer Michel Lussault, and creator of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge Josh Neufeld will gather for a discussion on the political, social, individual, and literary imagination of catastrophe.Tickets: Free66 West 12th St (btwn 6th & 5th Aves), New York http://www.newschool.edu

Tuesday, February 1st | 7:00pm | Screening and discussion | UnionDocsWith: Grégoire Chamayou, Jamie Hook, Katie SalenHosted by: Christopher AllenCo-presented with UnionDocsThe fugitive slave, the 17 century European peasant turned prey, the tracked native American, and, the stateless Jew are all examples from a violent history of man hunting in the western world to be considered in this presentation which will thread together video clips, short films, B-movie fragments, compelling lecture and debate.The French philosopher Grégoire Chamayou will introduce the dialectic of the hunter and the hunted, a theory he proposes in his new book, Chasses à l’homme (“Manhunts”).Tickets: $9 suggested donation Booking322 Union Ave (btwn Maujer & Ten Eyck St), New Yorkhttp://www.uniondocs.org

Thursday, February 3rd | 7:30pm | Discussion | French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) - Le SkyroomWith: Reif Larsen, Michel Lussault, Peter Turchi, Philippe VassetHosted by: Albert MobilioCo-presented with French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) and Bookforum as part of Write About NowHow are stories like maps, and maps like stories? How do we understand and talk about place? These are some of the questions the panelists will consider from the vantages of literature, psychology, and social science. Reif Larsen’s novel The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet features a narrator whose obsession with maps guides his journey across the country. Peter Turchi’s book Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer considers the very act of writing as a geographic exploration. In the literary narrative Un Livre blanc. Récit avec cartes (“A White Book. A writing with maps”), Philippe Vasset explores city surburbs that are represented as blanks on maps. And geographer Michel Lussault has written several books revealing how space—in the same way as politics and economics—shapes social organizations.Booking: 800 982 27 87Tickets: Students and FIAF Members $10 - Non Members $15 Booking22 East 60th St (btwn Park & Madison Aves), New York http://www.fiaf.org

Friday, January 28th | 8:00pm | Performance / discussion | The New York Public Library - Celeste Bartos ForumWith: Salman Ahmad, Reza Aslan, Ala Ebtekar, Dan Fishback, Dan Fishback, Dan Fishback, Fabrice Hadjadj, Alicia Jo Rabins, Shirin Neshat, Damien PoisblaudHosted by: Reza AslanCo-presented with LIVE from the New York Public LibraryPerforming artists and writers will come together on stage: a testament to a hoped-for future of peaceful collaboration between the three great faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The evening will gather Shirin Neshat on the written word in Islam, Alicia Jo Rabins who will perform poems set to music about women in the Torah, Salman Ahmad who will play traditional ghazals mixed with rock and roll, and Fabrice Hadjadj who will read on the book of Job, in a duet with Gregorian chant singer Damien Poisblaud.Tickets: $15/$10 BookingStephen A. Schwarzman Building - 455 5th Ave (at 42nd St), New York http://www.nypl.org/