Ernesto Pujol

Social Choreographer Ernesto Pujol brings his multi-year Listening School project to the festival in the form of a public performative research process and a silent durational performance: The Listeners. The project was created in response to the urgent need to listen empathically in order to support democracy in America and abroad. Pujol’s Listening School will seek performative engagement for three days across Lower Manhattan’s urban riverbeds of listening flow. Dressed in Indigo Blues, thirteen artists will pursue the public’s roadside discourse on listening. Their open process will culminate in The Listeners, a performance as a formal listening vessel embodying stillness in the midst of flow. 

A message from the Artist

I’m an artist interested in listening. I’m studying listening. I want to become a better listener. I’m asking people their thoughts about listening, and their listening experiences.

Suggested questions for the public to think about/ speak about with the listeners:

What is listening?
How do you define listening?
What are the qualities required for listening?
What are the conditions required for listening?
What makes a good listener?
Are you a good listener?
What makes you a good listener?
Have you always been a good listener?Who is the best listener in your life?
Do you feel listened to?
Have you ever felt not listened to?
As a society, what do we need to listen to?
Is there something we need to listen to as a society?
Are we truly listening to each other?
What would help us to listen better?
Is there something I should listen to?
Is there someone I should listen to?
If you were choreographing me:
What would you like me to listen to?
Who would you like me to listen to?Where would you send me out to listen?

In collaboration with artists Kimberley Acquaro, Kate Harding, Sara Jimenez, Sto Len, Ernesto Pujol, Valarie Samulski, Jonathan David Smyth, Young Sun Han, Molly Teitelbaum, Benjamin Thorpe, Riva Weinstein, and Joy Whalen. Co-curated with Danielle ML King.