While I was also listening to NY&LA

While I was also listening to NY&LA is a performative extension of the yearlong series of exhibitions and events Alors que j’écoutais moi aussi […] (While I was also listening […]) developed at La Criée centre for contemporary art, Rennes, France, in 2017. This program was conceived and organized by Sophie Kaplan, director of the art centre, in close collaboration with three associated artists: Feelicia Atkinson, Julien Bismuth, and Yann Serandour. The American poet and performer David Antin is the figurehead of this ambitious and polyphonic program.

While I was also listening to NY&LA takes place in Los Angeles at Human Resources on 22 March and in New York at Artists Space on 27 March and at the Emily Harvey Foundation on 30 and 31 March. The different components of this project are linked by a common thematic and conceptual concern, that of narrative. What is a narrative in art (i.e. as exemplified by the two extremes of a personal story and a general art history)? How is narrative used as a medium and form in the arts? How does narrative in turn generate different forms of interdisciplinarity and intermediality? In Los Angeles, the french team will go trough the David Antin's archives at the Getty Research Institute. The Antin' archives will be the starting point for a publication, to be coedited by La Criée and the publishing house Shelter Press, that will be the final chapter of the cycle While I was also listining [...]. On 22 March, the first event takes place at Human Resources L.A., featuring Krysten Cunningham, LeRoy Stevens, David Horvitz, Jennie Liu and her performers, Feelicia Atkinson and Julien Bismuth, Yann Sérandour and Lucky Dragons. On 25 March, the second event takes place at Artists Space, N.Y., featuring Julien Bismuth, Charles Bernstein, Jay Sanders, Tan Lin, and Ellen Zweig. On 30 March, the third event takes place at the Emily Harvey Foundation, featuring Morgan Bassichis, Constance DeJong, Wayne Koestenbaum, Sara Magenheimer, Feelicia Atkinson and Yann Sérandour and is followed on 31 March by workshops led by Svetlana Kitto, Julien Bismuth and Lucy Ives. The Paris based Italian curator Alessandra Prandin has been invited by La Criée to coordinate and curate this American chapter with local partners Luke Fischbeck from Human Resources in Los Angeles and Rachel Valinsky (Wendy’s Subway) in New York. The event at Artists Space is curated by artist Julien Bismuth, poet Charles Bernstein and curator Jay Sanders.