Jay Sanders and Charles Bernstein interview each other on Close Listening

Bernstein and Sanders, photo by Susan Bee.

Whitney Museum curator of performance Jay Sanders and poet Charles Bernstein discuss their work in, on, and around sound, performance, installation, dance, poetry, theater, poetics, curating, editing, and essay writing. They also reflect on their previous collaboration curating the 2001 exhibition Poetry Plastique at the Marianne Boesky Gallery. This event was organized as part of the exhibition S/N, curated by the 2014–15 Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellows of the Independent Study Program. The event took place at The Kitchen in New York.

Before the two Close Listening shows, Sanders and Bernstein each read essays. Bernstein read his preface to Pitch of Poetry and discussed his work with audio-tape poems. Sanders followed his essay by playing a track of Colin Nancarrow, as a preview of a show he co-curated, "Anywhere in Time: A Conlon Nancarrow Festival." In the interview, Sanders also discussed his show "Rituals of Rented Island: Object Theater, Loft Performance, and the New Psychodrama." 

1. Sanders reads "Mood Elevators and Changing Shapes" (on Guy de Cointet), originally published in Artforum, July 2007. (12:13): MP3

2. Bernstein interviews Sanders on Close Listening (36:26): MP3

3. Sanders interviews Bernstein on Close Listening (31:25): MP3