New York Premiere
June 24 from 11:30am - 2:30pm
Anderson Contemporary in the Atrium at 180 Maiden Lane
180 Maiden Ln
New York, NY 10038
The Plaza at 88 Pine St.
88 Pine St
New York, NY 10005
June 25 from 11:30 a.m. -
2:30 p.m.
Liberty Park
155 Cedar St
New York, NY 10006
South Oculus Plaza
Church & Greenwich Streets at Dey Street
New York, NY 10006
June 26 from 11:30 a.m. -
2:30 p.m.
28 Liberty: Fosun Plaza
28 Liberty St
New York, NY 10005
All events in the River To River Festival are free and all are welcome.
The Listening School
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.
A Listening Journal will be an ongoing timeline for texts created during The Listening School process leading to The Listeners performance on June 27. The first entries were written by Ernesto Pujol, followed by the thoughts and experiences of performers Kimberly Acquaro, Kate Harding, Sara Jimenez, Sto Len, Sara Overton, Jonathan David Smyth, Young Sun Han, Molly Teitelbaum, Riva Weinstein, Joy Whalen, Valarie Samulski, and Benjamin Thorpe.
About Ernesto Pujol
Ernesto Pujol is a site-specific performance artist and social choreographer. His interdisciplinary projects draw unapologetically from world religions as embodied cultural material containing the rich performativity of belief. A portraitist of place, Pujol strives to reclaim historic public space from distractions, revisiting emblematic architecture and mythical landscapes. He has an MFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, and has been the recipient of numerous foundation fellowships. Pujol is the author of Sited Body, Public Visions, silence, stillness and walking as Performance Practice; and Walking Art Practice, Reflections on Socially Engaged Paths.
Pujol is the author of Sited Body, Public Visions, silence, stillness and walking as Performance Practice; and more recently, Walking Art Practice, Reflections on Socially Engaged Paths. His essays and interviews appear in publications such as Awake: Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art.
Ernesto Pujol is a participant in Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Extended Life Dance Development program made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Listeners is commissioned by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, developed as part of LMCC’s Extended Life Dance Development program made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Listeners is supported in part by Art Matters. Space generously provided by Anderson Contemporary, Fosun, National Park Service, and Port Authority NY + NJ.