Performance Talks

About Performance Talks

Performance Talks is an audio series featuring conversations with artists, dancers, choreographers, writers, photographers, curators, and directors about the afterlives of performance, presented by art historian and curator Jeanette Bisschops.

Publisher

Jeanette Bisschops

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

27 Sept 2024

Latest episode

2 Jan 2026

Latest episodes

9 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   2 Jan 2026

   Performance Talks with Jenny Schlenzka

   In this episode, I’m speaking with Jenny Schlenzka, Director of the Gropius Bau in Berlin. We talk about Jenny’s early years in New York, her time at the Museum of Modern Art as its first performance curator, what it means to program live work and performance in museum structures not designed for sound and movement, and questions of collecting and historicizing dance and performance. We also talk about 02020, a project she concocted with Sarah Michelson during her time as Director of Performance Space New York in which they gave a group of artist the mandate to run the organization together, and how all this experience continues to shape how she thinks about the museum as a public space today. Jenny Schlenzka is a Berlin-born curator with a strong fucus in contemporary art. She has been Director of Gropius Bau since September 2023. Prior to this appointment, Schlenzka spent more than 20 years in New York City, where she was Curator at The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 before becoming Executive Artistic Director at Performance Space New York (formerly PS 122) in 2017. Follow Jenny: https://www.instagram.com/ (https://www.instagram.com/mickeymahar)jennyschlenzka (https://www.instagram.com/mikceyy/) Stay tuned for more episodes! Photo by Muriel Liebmann

2. 

   20 Jun 2025

   Performance Talks with Mickey Mahar

   Performer Mickey Mahar discusses performing in museum spaces and art fairs, the feeling of being photographed, and the labor of co-creating performance works in an interview with Dylan Sherman.

3. 

   16 Apr 2025

   Performance Talks with Philip Bither

   This episode of Performance Talks is a conversation with Philip Bither, Senior Curator of Performing Arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, who oversees one of the country's leading contemporary performing arts programs. In this conversation, he and I talk about the Walker’s long history with commissioning and presenting live work, the evolving relationship between performance and visual art, and the ongoing questions around how to preserve liveness. And, maybe most importantly, we look at what it means to support artists over time—and why that matters. Philip Bither has overseen significant expansion of the Performing Arts program, including the building of the McGuire Theater, an acclaimed new theatrical space within the Walker expansion (2005), the raising of the program's first commissioning/programming endowment, the commissioning of more than 100 new works in dance, music and performance, and the annual presentation/residency support of dozens of contemporary performing arts creators, established and emerging. Prior to this, he served as Director of Programming/Artistic Director for the Flynn Center, later becoming Associate Director/Music Curator at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). He received the Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award in 2009. He sits on numerous federal, state, local, and national foundation arts panels and he speaks and writes about the contemporary performing arts nationally. Find the 70+ curatorial interviews by Bither on the Walker Art Center's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA0898AB8FAB61AA5 (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA0898AB8FAB61AA5) Follow the Walker Art Center: https://www.instagram.com/walkerartcenter (https://www.instagram.com/walkerartcenter/) Stay tuned for more episodes. The research for this series was generously supported by the Mondriaan Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. Design by Katharine Wimett.

4. 

   5 Feb 2025

   Performance Talks with Beatrix Ruf

   This episode of Performance Talks is a conversation with Beatrix Ruf, the Director of Hartwig Art Foundation, where she oversees the vision and realization of its new contemporary art museum in Amsterdam. In this conversation, we discuss the need to rethink the economy and infrastructure of museums to allow for performance and interdisciplinary experimentation, the specifics of how the cultural production scene of Amsterdam functions and her plans for the new museum in Amsterdam. Beatrix Ruf is the Director of Hartwig Art Foundation, where she oversees the vision and realization of its new contemporary art museum in Amsterdam, which is currently under construction. Beatrix served as the Director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam from 2014 to 2018. Her previous roles include Director of Kunsthalle Zürich, Director of Kunsthaus Glarus, and Curator at Kunstmuseum Thurgau in Warth. In 2006, Beatrix curated the third edition of the Tate Triennial in London, and in 2008, she co-curated the Yokohama Triennial in Japan. From June 2019 to February 2022, she was the Counseling Strategic Director at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow. Additionally, from 1995 to 2014, Beatrix curated the Ringier Collection, and from 2006 to 2021, she was a core member of the think tank group for the LUMA Foundation in Arles. Ruf is a member of several advisory and programme committees and frequently serves as a jury member. She is currently a Board Member of the Between Bridges Foundation in Berlin, a member of the Selection Committee of The Mondrian Initiative in Laren, and a Board Member of WeTransfer’s The Supporting Act Foundation in Amsterdam. Beatrix has curated numerous exhibitions, collaborated with many renowned artists, and published extensively on contemporary artists, including Isa Genzken, Joan Jonas, Seth Price, Jana Euler, Ian Wallace, Laura Owens, Tino Sehgal, Wade Guyton, Avery Singer, Yang Fudong, Tony Cokes, Philippe Parreno, Kai Althoff, Jordan Wolfson, Rosemarie Trockel, Sturtevant, and Wu Tsang, among many others. Follow Hartwig Art Foundation: https://www.instagram.com/hartwigartfoundation (https://www.instagram.com/davidmvelasco/) Stay tuned for more episodes. The research for this series was generously supported by the Mondriaan Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. Design by Katharine Wimett. Research assistance by Dylan Sherman.

5. 

   20 Dec 2024

   Performance Talks with the Carolee Schneemann Foundation

   Carolee Schneemann Foundation's Rachel Helm and Rachel Churner discuss preserving Schneemann's legacy and turning her home into a residency, showcasing the intricacies of representing a pioneering artist's archive and estate.

6. 

   14 Nov 2024

   Performance Talks with Limor Tomer

   This episode of Performance Talks is a conversation with the General Manager of Live Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Limor Tomer. Tomer earned both her B.A. and M.A. from The Juilliard School. For 10 years, she performed professionally as a classical pianist in solo and orchestral performances throughout the U.S. and Europe. While at The Met, Tomer expanded and branched out the museum's performance program into exciting new arenas. In this conversation, we speak about what it looks like to program live work at a historical museum, the interaction between architecture and performance, and the evolution of live art programming at the Met, which started as the 'lectures and concerts' department, contained within it's auditorium, but now encompasses all performing arts, which visitors can encounter throughout the museum. Follow Limor: https://www.instagram.com/limor_tomer (https://www.instagram.com/charles_aubin/) Stay tuned for more episodes coming this Fall. The research for this series was generously supported by the Mondriaan Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. Design by Katharine Wimett. Research assistance by Dylan Sherman.

7. 

   29 Oct 2024

   Performance Talks with Charles Aubin

   For this episode of Performance Talks I had the pleasure to interview the New York-based curator and Co-Director of Centre Pompidou Jersey City, Charles Aubin. Aubin started his career at Centre Pompidou in Paris, served as Senior Curator and Head of Publications at Performa, and was recently hired as Co-Director of Centre Pompidou Jersey City (scheduled to open in 2026) in a full circle moment. Working at Performa for more than a decade, the artists he curated work by are almost too numerous works to name: Madeline Hollander, Jérôme Bell, Danielle Dean, and Franz Erhard Walther. A few years ago, he started an oral history project focussing on Yvonne Rainer's choreographic work since her return to dance in 1999. In our interview, we delve into Charles' origins as a curator and speak to the challenges of gathering first hand accounts of Yvonne’s 21st-century works.⁣ Follow Charles: https://www.instagram.com/charles_aubin (https://www.instagram.com/charles_aubin/) Stay tuned for more episodes coming this Fall. The research for this series was generously supported by the Mondriaan Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. Design by Katharine Wimett. Research assistance by Dylan Sherman.

8. 

   15 Oct 2024

   Bonus Episode: Performance Talks Book Club with Nile Harris and David Velasco

   On September 29 at 99 Canal, writer and editor David Velasco and performer and producer Nile Harris, joined Jeanette Bisschops for a conversation on 'Sarah Michelson,' the 2017 book edited by Velasco and published by MoMA as part of their Modern Dance series. They were joined by a crowd of performance devotees and, in a surprise appearance, Sarah herself. In the recorded discussion, the group talks about the contested process of making the book, the value of dance writing, and how they came to be obsessed with Sarah's work in the first place. ~ ~ ~ Nile Harris Nile Harris is a performer and director of live works of art. He is currently working on commissions with Performance Space New York and the Chocolate Factory Theater and serves as an Artistic Leader at Ping Chong and Company. His recent work includes ‘this house is not a home’ (2023) an improvised play about American nationalism starring performers Crackhead Barney & Malcolm-X Betts which premiered at Abrons Arts Center and later restaged a part of the Under the Radar Festival. Sarah Michelson Born in Manchester, England, and based in New York, since the 1990s Michelson has created performances that examine the nature of dance as a discipline through its historical, physical, and intellectual rigor. Her recent work has incorporated painting, video projection, sound, and installation. David Velasco David Velasco was editor in chief of Artforum from 2017 to 2023 and before that worked as an editor at the website for twelve years. In 2016 he was the creator of and series editor for “Modern Dance,” published by the Museum of Modern Art, which has produced three books: Sarah Michelson (ed. David Velasco), Ralph Lemon (ed. Thomas [T.] Jean Lax), and Boris Charmatz (ed. Ana Janevski). In October 2023 he was dismissed from the magazine after publishing an open letter from cultural workers calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. He lives in New York where he is at work on a book. ~ ~ ~ 99 Canal is a project run by artists, for artists (https://99canal.net)

9. 

   27 Sept 2024

   Performance Talks with David Velasco

   This first episode of Performance Talks is a conversation with writer and editor David Velasco He brought dance on to the pages of Art Forum during his six year stint as editor-in-chief at the magazine and was the editor of Modern Dance, a series of monographs on contemporary choreographers, published by MoMA. His writing on dance and performance is some of the best out there. In this conversation, Velasco speaks about the importance of integrating dance and theater history into the visual art canon, finding his voice as a writer and the excitement and difficulties of evoking a performance or choreography through text. The MoMA Modern Dance Series: https://store.moma.org/products/sarah-michelson-modern-dance-series-paperback (https://store.moma.org/products/sarah-michelson-modern-dance-series-paperback) https://store.moma.org/products/boris-charmatz-modern-dance-series-paperback (https://store.moma.org/products/boris-charmatz-modern-dance-series-paperback) the monograph on Ralph Lemon is unavailable prior to his upcoming major exhibition at MoMA PS1, opening November 14, 2024 Follow David: https://www.instagram.com/davidmvelasco/ (https://www.instagram.com/davidmvelasco/) Stay tuned for more episodes coming this Fall. The research for this series was generously supported by the Mondriaan Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. Design by Katharine Wimett. Research assistance by Dylan Sherman.

Who has been a guest on Performance Talks

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Mickey Mahar
• Rachel Helm
• Rachel Churner

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 10 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

6

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

Contact Performance Talks

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.