The Bunker: inaugural program

The John Giorno Foundation is pleased to announce its inaugural season of programming at The Bunker located at 222 Bowery. The Bunker’s program furthers The John Giorno Foundation’s mission of supporting living artists and the history of the avant-garde and gay communities in New York. Reflecting John Giorno’s ethos, activism, and artistic achievements, the program will present a diverse array of artist talks, film series, and performance. The Bunker provides a collaborative place for artists of all generations to meet.

Just a Mirror at The Bunker is an inaugural series of talks and films organized by Bill Cournoyer for The John Giorno Foundation, taking place at the iconic historical site at 222 Bowery. Inspired by Giorno’s reflection of the poetic, personal, and social in contemporary society as seen through the lens of artists, this program will bring together luminaries and reflect on works from the American playbook of poetry, art, and experimental music and film. 

Monday, April 11, 7pm
Raque Ford, virgil b/g taylor and Nora Turato in conversation with Ebony L. Hayes
John Giorno utilized language as his primary tool in his practice as a poet and visual artist. Artists Raque Ford, virgil b/g taylor and Nora Turato place importance in the written word in their respective practices. Ebony L. Hayes, Director of 52 Walker, will host a discussion with Ford, taylor, and Turato on how these artists use text in their performances and artworks to mirror social and political issues respective to their generation and how they overlap with John Giorno’s artistic oeuvre.

Monday, May 9, 7pm
Drew Sawyer on Jimmy DeSana moderated by Jarrett Earnest
Drew Sawyer, Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator at the Brooklyn Museum, will discuss the work of Jimmy DeSana (1949–1990) with Jarrett Earnest, curator, and writer. Jimmy DeSana (1949-1990), photographer, emerged from the East Village art scene in the 1970’s. In 1980, DeSana’s collection of S&M photographs were published in his book Submission, which featured an introduction by William S. Burroughs. DeSana’s later work included images of the avant-garde culture of downtown New York, specifically portraits of artists and cultural icons like John Giorno, William S. Burroughs, and Yoko Ono. In 1981, DeSana photographed the cover of John Giorno’s LP, You’re The Guy I Want To Share My Money With, a collaboration with Laurie Anderson and William S. Burroughs. Earnest, in conversation with Sawyer, will discuss the importance of DeSana’s queer perspective in his work and how it distinguished him from his peers; DeSana’s representation of the body as the central focus in his practice; and DeSana’s use of documentation through portraiture.

Monday, June 6, 7pm
Deadlines and Divine Distractions 
Deadlines and Divine Distractions is an ongoing epistolary project co-edited by Negar Azimi, writer, and Editor-in-Chief of Bidoun, and Pati Hertling, Deputy Director of Performance Space New York. The project lives on the internet where it brings together irreverent letters between friends and strangers, the living, and the dead. Deadlines is an ardent expression of the editors’ belief in and love for the (promiscuous) art of letter writing. In the spirit of John Giorno’s practice of working collaboratively with artists throughout his career, The John Giorno Foundation is pleased to host Deadlines and Divine Distractions’s latest project at The Bunker. 

Monday, July 11, 7pm
Rochelle Feinstein in discussion with Bridget Donahue and Candice Macey
Rochelle Feinstein began the pursuit of her artistic ambitions in New York in the 1980s, leading to her decades-long examination of painting. Feinstein’s practice examines the language of abstraction, while humorously including text within her paintings. Feinstein has consistently employed a promiscuous approach to how her paintings look, resulting in a diverse non-style. Her examination of painting has included experimentation with other mediums like drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, video, and installation. Feinstein recently was the focus of a six-venue collaborative project with exhibitions in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Paris, and Zurich. Bridget Donahue and Candice Macey will discuss Feinstein’s interest in language, abstraction, the development of her diverse non-style, and the importance of concepts like irony and authorship.

Monday, August 15, 7pm
Justin Hicks performance and discussion with Kyle Dacuyan
Justin Hicks, multidisciplinary artist, composer, and vocalist will perform a piece especially selected for The Bunker. Kyle Dacuyan, poet, performer, and Executive Director of The Poetry Project, will discuss Hick’s inspiration for the performance and his diverse practice.

Film screenings

Monday, April 25, 7pm
Burroughs: The Movie (1983)
In 1976, William Burroughs, fellow poet, and friend of John Giorno, moved into the Bunker, a former locker room of the old YMCA and future home of Giorno Poetry Systems. A bedroom was constructed for Burroughs in the space and remains intact today. In honor of Burroughs’ legacy at The Bunker and 222 Bowery, and as an important contributor and collaborator of Giorno Poetry Systems, we are pleased to announce the screening of the film Burroughs: The Movie (1983) directed by the late Howard Brookner. After Brookner’s death from AIDS in 1989, Giorno personally safeguarded the film, housing it at 222 Bowery until it was restored by Brookner’s nephew, Aaron Brookner, and distributed by Criterion in 2011. The film includes appearances by Allen Ginsberg, John Giorno, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith and Terry Southern. 

Monday, May 23, 7pm
Flaming Creatures (1963)
The Bunker is pleased to present the legendary underground film Flaming Creatures directed by Jack Smith. Flaming Creatures, shot in the Bronx, officially premiered at the Bleecker Street Cinema in Greenwich Village, New York in 1963. John Giorno attended this premiere with his then-lover, Andy Warhol, and describes the experience in his memoir, Great Demon Kings. The police raided the theater and confiscated the film which was subsequently banned in 22 states. The raid put the film and Smith into the spotlight. The film’s banning became part of the censorship battle being fought in the U.S. at that time. Downtown luminaries like Jonas Mekas, Susan Sontag and Allen Ginsberg came to the film and director’s defense. In 1989, Penny Arcade and J. Hoberman had the film restored. Described by Smith as “a comedy set in a haunted music studio,” Flaming Creatures went against the norms of both society and filmmaking, becoming a radical example that inspired other artists and filmmakers like Andy Warhol and John Waters. Smith didn’t use a narrative; the sets and special effects were homemade; and the actors were non-professionals. It’s significance today is based on Smith’s vision to foreground fluidity of gender, sexuality, and identity at a time when these subjects were rarely addressed. 

Monday, June 20, 7pm
Double feature: Match Girl (1966) and Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol (1982)
John Giorno first met Andy Warhol in 1962, at the opening of Warhol’s first solo exhibition at the Stable Gallery. They had an immediate connection and soon became lovers, immersed in the vibrant energy of the New York avant-garde scene of that era. As Giorno writes in his memoir, “That year, Jonas Mekas coined the term and invented the phenomenon called ‘underground cinema.’ He pulled together a generation of young filmmakers… [and] rented small, run-down theaters around the city that happened to be empty for the night. Through word of mouth, everyone came. Andy and I went to the movies once, twice, or three times a week, every week for a year.” Warhol himself was the subject of many of Mekas’ film diaries from 1965-82, which led to the creation of Mekas’ star-studded compilation film Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol. Around this same time, Andrew Meyer filmed Match Girl in collaboration with Warhol; it depicts the “fantasy experiences of an aspiring young actress done in color and with dandy musical accompaniment by the Rolling Stones.” —Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

Monday, July 25, 7pm
1960s psychedelic short films: featuring works by Barry Spinello, Stan Brackhage, Marie Menken, Stan Vanderbeek, Donna Deitch, Storm De Hirsch, and Jud Yalkut
This 60-minute film compilation highlights some of the most vibrant experimental shorts of the 1960s by artists both in and outside of John Giorno’s artistic orbit. Many of these works are abstract, featuring daring interventions etched, painted, or glued onto the surface of the film itself; it includes such classics as Stan Brakhage’s Mothlight—which features real moth wings adhered to a clear trip of film—and ends with Jud Yalkut’s 24-minute masterpiece on Yayoi Kusama. Full program: Barry Spinello, Sonata for Pen, Brush & Ruler, (1968, 10 minutes); Stan Brakhage, Mothlight (1963, 4 minutes); Marie Menken, Eye Music in Red Major (1961, 6 minutes); Stan Vanderbeek, POEMFIELD 2 (1966, 6 minutes); Donna Deitch, She Was a Visitor, (1963, 2 minutes); Storm De Hirsch, Peyote Queen, (1965, 9 minutes); Jud Yalkut, Kusama’s Self-Obliteration, (1974, 24 minutes).

Gatherings

Buddhist programming
Tibetan Buddhist Ceremony: We’re welcoming home the Catskill monastery, Padma Samye Ling (PSL) Monastery, to The Bunker’s monthly program. John Giorno, Yeshe Dorje (Indestructible Wisdom), met His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism in the early 1970s, and became a devoted and loyal disciple. Since the late 1980’s, The Bunker has been used by the lamas to give teachings and perform ceremonies. The series will begin with the return of Padma Samye Ling (PSL) Monastery’s ceremonies and teachings to The Bunker on March 5.

Yoga
Iyengar yoga class with David Rubeo 
The first Saturday of each month, David Rubeo, certified Iyengar Yoga instructor, will hold a class at The Bunker. “The system of yoga known as Iyengar Yoga was created and developed over 75 years ago by Yogacara B.K.S. Iyengar. Mr. Iyengar devoted his life to the evolution of his approach to yoga, which is based on the traditional eight limbs of yoga taught over 2500 years ago by the sage, Patanjali. Mr. Iyengar believed that yoga goes beyond being a physical discipline- it is also an art, a science, and a philosophy, that he developed with this in mind.” Classes will be on the first Saturday of each month starting on March 5.