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/jennyschlenzka

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Photo by Muriel Liebmann

In this episode, I am joined by co-interviewer Dylan Sherman. We speak with performer Mickey Mahar, whose work has been central to performances by artists like Maria Hassabi, Anne Imhof, Ryan McNamara, and Pope.L. We talk about what it means to perform inside museum spaces and art fairs, how it feels to be endlessly photographed by strangers, and the often invisible labor involved in co-creating performance works. Mickey reflects on growing up as a competitive Irish dancer, starting as a performer in the New York art world, and what it’s like to perform when you don’t always agree with the work.

Mickey Mahar is a dancer and performer originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He works mainly with artists creating performance inside of visual art contexts and has collaborated with Anne Imhof, Maria Hassabi, Gillian Walsh, and many others. He currently lives in Berlin.

Follow Mickey Mahar:

https://www.instagram.com/mikceyy

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The research for this series was generously supported by the Mondriaan Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.

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

Follow the Walker Art Center:

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.