The Bunker: fall 2022 program

The John Giorno Foundation is pleased to announce its second 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.

September 28, 7–8pm
Karen Finley performance
Karen Finley presents a reading and performance of a work-in-progress, commissioned for The Poetry Project and John Giorno Foundation followed by a conversation moderated by Kyle Dacuyan, Executive Director of Poetry Project. Finley works in a variety of mediums such as installation, video, performance, public art, visual art, entertainment, television and film, memorials, music, and literature. Finley was featured on the Giorno Poetry System’s album Like A Girl, I Want You To Keep Coming (1989).  

October 25, 7–8pm
No Land performance
No Land, poet & artist, will perform her poem works accompanied by ethereal sonic contributions from musicians Bentley Anderson & Daniel Carter. No Land’s cine-poems will simultaneously illuminate The Bunker, including Monastic Night (Poet’s Temple) and the premiere of a new cinema piece featuring Anne Waldman entitled Mercy-Eyed. No Land’s work continues the lineage of downtown NYC artist counterculture. Her practice evokes reverence for mystery and delicate chaos in the forms of her films & poet-performances with musicians. She has been guided by encounters with downtown artists & poets, including Anne Waldman’s embrace of the “outrider” tradition within the poetry world.  

November 8, 7–8pm
John Yau on Joe Brainard moderated by Barry Schwabsky
John Yau, art critic and poet, in conversation with Barry Schwabsky, art critic at large, will discuss Yau’s newly published book titled Joe Brainard: The Art of the Personal. Known for his internationally popular memoir, I Remember, Joe Brainard (1942–94) was also a prolific visual artist. In his book, Yau describes how Brainard transformed the ordinary into the beautiful, producing thousands of multimedia pieces that express Brainard’s affection for the world. John Giorno and Joe Brainard were friends, fellow poets and visual artists who collaborated on art projects and corresponded frequently, exchanging ideas and artworks with one another. Brainard is included with an excerpt of I Remember in the original recording of The Dial-A-Poem Poets album recorded and printed in 1972. 

December 6, 7–8pm
Sara Cynwar video screening moderated by Stuart Comer
Sara Cwynar’s six channel film, Glass Life (2021), a meditation on the relationship between images and the self will be screened with her films Rose Gold (2017) and Red Film (2018), precursors to Glass Life, for the first time together. Stuart Comer, The Lonti Ebers Chief Curator of Media, and Performance at MoMA will moderate a discussion with Cynwar after the screening. Sara Cwynar’s films and photography have been described as building on the legacy of the 1980s Pictures Generation. The artist is interested in how design and popular images work on our psyches, in how visual strategies infiltrate our consciousness. She considers how familiar, often sentimental images smooth over unpleasant realities, to cover up “the systems of control embedded within our social, economic, and political lives.”

November 15, 7–8pm
Film screening—I Remember: A Film about Joe Brainard by Matt Wolf & I Remember by Avi Zev Weider & David Chartier 
A focus on the artist Joe Brainard continues with two film screenings at The Bunker. Filmmaker Matt Wolf’s film I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard (2012) combines audio recordings of Brainard reading from the poem, as well as an interview with his lifelong friend and collaborator, the poet Ron Padgett. I Remember (1999), Avi Zev Weider & David Chartier’s film starring John Cameron Mitchell and Liam Aiken adapted from Brainard’s book, explores the concept of memory.

December 13, 7–8pm
Film screening: A selection of films by Jean-Jacque Lebel
Jean-Jacques Lebel (born 1936) is a French filmmaker, as well as an artist, poet, translator, poetry publisher, political activist, art collector, and art historian, who worked closely with the artists of the Beat Generation. Lebel, co-founder and first President of Polyphonix, an international festival in Paris, France of sound poetry, performance, video, and various music, became lifelong friends and collaborators with John Giorno through the festival beginning in 1981. 

Buddhist programming
Tibetan Buddhist Ceremony: We’re welcoming home the Catskill monastery, Padma Samye Ling (PSL) Monastery, to The Bunker’s monthly programs. John Giorno, Yeshe Dorje (Indestructible Wisdom), met His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma school Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, 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 September 10 at 10am & 12pm.      

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 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 October 1st.