March 28, 2019
Red Bull Arts New York is pleased to announce free public programming for Gretchen Bender: So Much Deathless, the first posthumous retrospective of the life and work of the influential, multi-disciplinary artist. This series of artist talks and performative lectures will run on select Thursdays at 7pm through July 28, 2019, and will respond to critical themes in this ambitious exhibition. Returning the spotlight to one of contemporary art’s most prescient figures, So Much Deathless details Bender’s historic importance and lasting influence.
Meet the Makers is a collaboration with the Reserve Film and Video Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Based on a series that originated at The New York Public Library, Meet the Makers is a program of artist talks and performative lectures that brings together today’s media makers, theorists, scholars, and artists to promote visual arts literacy and explore the ways we engage with emergent media and new technologies.
Originally presented at the Donnell Library Center on 53rd Street, the series invited contemporary artists, media activists, and film organizers, including Video Data Bank, Tony Oursler, Antoni Muntadas, XCHANGE TV, Paper Tiger Television, Carolee Schneemann, Shigeko Kubota, Dara Birnbaum, and Gretchen Bender to screen and discuss their work. Coinciding with her Meet the Makers talk in 1990, Bender became the first artist commissioned to present her work in the street-facing windows of the Donnell Library Center, with TV Text and Image.
On the occasion of Gretchen Bender: So Much Deathless, Red Bull Arts New York is thrilled to be working with NYPL to reprise this groundbreaking platform to celebrate the Reserve Film and Video Collection’s rich history of media arts education and to connect Bender with our current community of media makers. Retaining the integrity of the original series, Meet the Makers provides a nourishing platform of exchange for the community of progressive, emergent image makers based in New York and abroad. Among the eclectic participants are cyberpunk artist Shu Lea Cheang, outsider librarian Rick Prelinger, and the enfant terribles of Net Art, Eva and Franco Mattes.
“If we are going to encourage a more literate, critical thinking, civic-minded society, then we need provocateurs. We need materials that radically diverge from convention and conformity. Gretchen Bender and the Red Bull Arts network of artists do just that, says Elena Rossi-Snook, Collection Manager of the Reserve Film and Video Collection. Revitalizing the Meet the Makers series is a way to mutually meet the goals of the public library using the best cultural tools available.”
Visitors will be able to register for NYPL library cards during select events. Talks and presentations will be followed by communal discussion.
RSVP is required. Seating is limited. Please email redbullartsnewyork [at] redbull.com and indicate the program in the subject of your email. For more information on Meet the Makers, visit redbullarts.com.
Schedule
Dr. Pamela M. Lee
Thursday, March 28, 7pm
Solveig Nelson
Thursday, April 11, 7pm
Meriem Bennani
Thursday, April 25, 7pm
JLIN
Thursday, May 16, 7pm
DIS
Thursday, May 23, 7pm
Rick Prelinger
Thursday, July 18, 7pm
Shu Lea Cheang
Thursday, July 25, 7pm
Gretchen Bender: So Much Deathless is on view through July 28, 2019, Wednesday–Sunday, 12–7pm.