People Talking: Jennifer Burris, Mariana Fernández, and Vic Brooks on “Tuning Calder’s Clouds”
November 5, 2026
Talk
6 – 7:30pm
Calder’s Acoustic Ceiling at the Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas, 1954. Photograph by Paolo Gasparini. Courtesy Fundación Villanueva, Caracas. © 2026 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
A color photograph of the Aula Magna, the concert hall at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas, seen from a high balcony. Alexander Calder’s acoustic “Clouds” (1953) hang from the ceiling on thin cables at different angles. They are dozens of huge curved panels shaped like flattened ovals and leaves, and more cluster along the side walls. Most are cream-colored, and others are yellow, red, navy, and blue. Round lights dot the pale ceiling, where the panels cast overlapping shadows. Below, a curved wooden stage holds two black grand pianos in warm light. Curving rows of empty seats fill the steep auditorium.
People Talking: Jennifer Burris, Mariana Fernández, and Vic Brooks on Tuning Calder’s Clouds
Thursday, November 5
6 – 7:30pm
$10; members and students $5
In anticipation of the forthcoming book Tuning Calder’s Clouds (December 22; Athénée Press), our next People Talking program features the book’s editors, Jennifer Burris, Mariana Fernández, and Vic Brooks, sharing their in-depth research on one of Alexander Calder’s most significant artworks: the monumental Acoustic Ceiling (1954) in Venezuela.
Tuning Calder’s Clouds explores the importance of sound and architecture in Calder’s work, as well as the extent to which he was influenced by ideas of performance and theatricality. The book details how Acoustic Ceiling, a masterwork composed of multicolor panels that appear to float across the ceiling of a university theater in Caracas, emerged through Calder’s close collaboration with architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva. Together with engineers and local fabricators, they created a singular artwork that transformed Calder’s process of art making and continues to shape generations of artists in Latin America and beyond.
Burris, Fernández, and Brooks will discuss their fascinating research and the collaborative process that resulted in a series of essays and conversations with artists, scholars, architects, and musicians. They will explore some of the book’s key themes, including midcentury modernism in Latin America, performance and sound in Calder’s work, acoustic engineering, architecture and politics in Venezuela, and Calder’s deeply collaborative spirit.
The conversation will be accompanied by a selection of images from the richly illustrated publication, which features more than 100 previously unpublished letters, photographs, and artworks. Together, these materials offer an unprecedented look at Calder’s contributions to performance and sound through his sustained engagement with Latin America.
Admission includes a bookplate signed by the editors ahead of the book’s release on December 22. Preorder your copy from the Calder Gardens Shop.
Speakers
Jennifer Burris is a curator and academic whose work is grounded in material histories of performance and place. She is currently a lecturer in the Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. As director of Athénée Press, she works closely with artists and scholars on book projects that explore site-specificity, radical archiving, and research methodologies as forms of artistic practice. Photo by Megan Moura
Mariana Fernández is a writer and curator working across performance, moving image, sound, and visual art. She recently co-curated and produced performances and commissions by Lucy Raven, Deantoni Parks, and Kali Malone for Aspen Art Museum. Her writing has appeared in Artforum, ArtReview, ARTnews, BOMB, and Frieze, where she is a contributing writer. Photo by Miguel Bolaños
Vic Brooks is a curator of film, performance, and visual art. She is a consultant for the Artists Make Technology Lab at the Doris Duke Foundation as well as curator-at-large at Aspen Art Museum, where she organizes the annual AIR festival. Brooks also serves on the board of Atelier Calder and the curatorial committee of Calder Gardens. Her current projects include curating a cinema series for KADIST and producing a feature film with Aria Dean. She is a Film Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award nominee and a recipient of the Warhol Foundation’s Curatorial Research Fellowship.
The Series
People Talking presents conversations exploring themes central to Calder Gardens and contemporary culture, emphasizing storytelling and interdisciplinary exchange. Led by artists, cultural producers, and scientists, each program reflects Calder’s experimental ethos, nuanced understandings of movement and transformation, and innovative approaches to engaging with the environment today.
Programming at Calder Gardens is generously supported by Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz; The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston; Donna Green; Michael Sternberg; and the Friends of Calder Gardens.