Artist Laurel Nakadate will talk about her work at UnionDocs with philosopher Ruwen Ogien as part of Walls and Bridges festival
Multiple locations
April 11-21, most events free
www.wallsandbridges.net
Earlier this year, the inaugural Walls and Bridges festival, organized by the Villa Gillet and the Conseil de la Création artistique, held a series of special thought-provoking programs all over the city. Now it’s back for the second part, focusing on personal and artistic freedom and rights, beginning tonight with a free round-table at the Aperture Gallery in Chelsea at 6:30, “What Is Engagement Today?,” with Miguel Benasayag, Nina Berman, Didier Fassin, and George Packer, hosted by Mark Greif, and continuing tomorrow at 6:00 at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge with “What Does the Brain Do? Questioning Perception, Consciousness, and Free Will,” with Susan Barry, Howard Engel, Rodolfo Llinas, Pascal Mamassian, Israel Rosenfield, Luc Steels, and Edward Ziff. On Thursday night at 6:30, the New School hosts the free discussion “(Self) Censorship: Art, Morality, and Decency,” with Nan Goldin, Ruwen Ogien, Carole Talon-Hugon, and Lynne Tillman, hosted by Robert Polito and Benjamen Walker. On Saturday afternoon, “Fair for Knowledge: Clouds” will take place at Jo’s Restaurant, where diners (reservations required) can eat while listening to Deborah Coen, Pierre Pachet, Lytle Shaw, Luc Steels, Ginger Strand, Carole Talon-Hugon, and Sina Najafi talk about various aspects of clouds. The festival has quite a lineup scheduled for Saturday night’s free “Overboard! An Evening of Music and Storytelling” at Brooklyn’s Invisible Dog Center, with performances by Wally Cardona, Francisco Goldman, Arnon Grunberg, Trajal Harrell, Virginia Heffernan, Romain Huret, Annie-B Parson, Julia Preston, Ned Rothenberg, and many others. Since January 23, Laurel Nakadate’s “Only the Lonely” exhibition has been knocking out visitors at PS1 in Queens; on April 18, Nakadate will show some of her recent work at UnionDocs and talk about it with philosopher Ogien in “Get What You Want: An Artist and an Ethicist Discuss Manipulation and Desire,” hosted by Christopher Allen and Steve Holmgren (suggested donation $9). There will also be intellectual events at the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Cooper Union, the Heyman Center for the Humanities, and the French Institute Alliance Française; look for season three of Walls and Bridges this fall.