Theater innovator Robert Wilson will discuss emptiness and the void on December 6 at the Rubin Museum
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
October 18 – January 29, $15-$30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org
Running in conjunction with the exhibition “Grains of Emptiness,” which opens November 5 and includes works by Sanford Biggers, Theaster Gates, Atta Kim, Wolfgang Laib, and Charmion von Wiegand relating to Buddhist ritual practice and impermanence, Talk About Nothing features nearly two dozen conversations pairing artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, philosophers, and religious leaders discussing “what is and what isn’t.” The intriguing series, produced by resident Rubin programming genius Tim McHenry, begins October 18 with British author Karen Armstrong and 96th Street Mosque head Imam Shamsi Ali and continues with such pairings as British sculptor Antony Gormley and the Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi of MIT’s Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values, film director Mike Nichols and math and science philosopher Christopher Potter, video installation pioneer Bill Viola and Buddhist teacher Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, actor Brian Cox and psychology professor Alison Gopnik, comedian Sandra Bernhard and author Michael Cunningham, composer Nico Muhly and writer Andrew Solomon, multimedia performance artist Laurie Anderson and writer Charles Seife, and theater director Peter Sellars and academic and author Raj Patel. Although some of the events are already sold out, stand-by tickets could be available, so what have you got to lose? Well, nothing. You can also score free tickets to multiple talks by submitting a three-minute YouTube video about nothing by October 27 and placing in the top three.