NSE #59 | Francesco Clemente with Carlos Basualdo

Artist Francesco Clemente joins curator Carlos Basualdo in the 59th installment of the Rail’s New Social Environment. Clemente and Basualdo discuss creative practice during the pandemic, tantric philosophy, and the influence of Indian philosophy and literature on Clemente’s work. They consider the symbolic oppositions between contemplative practice and capitalism and state violence.

Clemente explains his interests in the bardo and in investigating other liminalities of space, consciousness, and social structures. They view watercolors of conch shells that Clemente has been making during the pandemic, and consider the paintings’ explorations of in-betweens.

This conversation concludes with a poetry reading by Vincent Katz.

This week’s New Social Environments are generously sponsored by the Richard Pousette-Dart Foundation. In response to the imminent crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brooklyn Rail shifted our operations online. These New Social Environments provide a place to have vibrant conversations in a time of great physical distancing.