The third Chicago Architecture Biennial titled ‘...and such other stories’ curated by Yesomi Umolu opens up the discourse of architecture into the realms of visual arts, policymaking, education, and activism. Expect multidisciplinary collaboration and collective thinking, windows into long-term projects, research-based presentations and socially-driven events. The Biennial will ripple across the city between 19 September 2019 and 5 January 2020, with a flurry of talks, workshops and satellite events in its wake.
This collaboratively built installation by ConstructLab that explores the concept of ’Togetherness’ will be the location of public programmes and workshops thoughout the Biennial. It’s an agora for public conversationns, a public wall for expression, and it comes with an ’anti-manual’ that lists the possibilities for transforming space. Photography: Kendall McCaugherty, 2019. Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Meet CAB 2019 participant Akinbode Akinbiyi. British born, Berlin based Akinbiyi has honed his art of documenting mega cities through photography. His work has taken him across the African continent – Lagos, Cairo, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, and Addis Ababa. For CAB 2019, he presents ‘Easy Like Sunday Morning— North Lawndale’ a series that resulted from the artist’s month-long residency in Homan Square in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighbourhood. His work searches for spiritual meaning in the ‘seemingly endless urban topography.’ Pictured here: ‘African Mobilities: this is not a refugee camp’, Architectur Museum TUM, Munich, 2018. Photography: Lindsey Appolis
At the Chicago Cultural Center, Theaster Gates’ contribution reinterprets Hans Haacke’s work ‘Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real-Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971’ which used documentation to demostrate the power dynamics of one of New York’s most controversial real estate owners. Here, Gates refocuses the framework upon his own real estate acquisition history, drawing on his training in urban planning and preservation. The force behind the Rebuild Foundation and Stony Island Arts Bank, Gates is behind the restoration and reactivation of abandoned buildings and vacant land in Chicago, where he seeks to demonstrate the potential political power in seemingly under-resourced communities. Photography: Kendall McCaugherty, 2019. Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Comprising London-based architects, urbanists and AA school unit masters John Palmesino & Ann-Sofi Rönnskog, Territorial Agency, combines architecture, analysis, advocacy, and action. Initially developed in collaboration with Greenpeace, Territorial Agency’s project Museum of Oil examines how the oil industry has infiltrated and disrupted global finance, communities, and the natural environment. Pictured here: installation view of Museum of Oil at ZKM Karlsruhe, 2016. Photography: Harald Voelkl
Artist, theorist, and urban designer Adrian Blackwell has created the Anarchitectural Library at the Chicago Cultural Center which examines the Center’s history as the city’s first public library. Blackwell invites visitors to browse the collection of books exploring the founding of the library in the late 19th century as an institution to educate immigrants, workers, socialists, and anarchists – to its role today in Chicago as a public living room for all. Books in the library also highlight the work of contemporary organisations passion about keeping the spaces public. Pictured here and above: Anarchitectural Library (against the erasure of Chicago’s common spaces), 2019. Photography: Kendall McCaugherty. Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial
Jimmy Robert takes over the Chicago Cultural Center north staircase with the work ‘Descendances du nu (Chicago)’ named after Marcel Duchamp’s iconic painting Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) and performed by a local artist. Combining performance, photography, film, video and drawing, Roberts explores the politics of spectatorship by reworking seminal avant-garde pieces in ways that complicate their racial and gendered readings. Pictured here: Metallica, Brandstof Performance, Garage Rotterdam, in collaboration with Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, as part of the exhibition ‘Prosecute my Posture’ curated by Sjoerd Kloosterhuis, 2018. Photography: Florian Braakman
Participant Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR) brings the project Refugee Heritage, to CAB 2019. Founded in Palestine in 2007, the research project-based artistic practice is engaged in the struggle for justice and equality, and the project presents documentation surrounding Dheisheh refugees. Also pictured here is Re-Rooting + Redux, a project by the Sweet Water Foundation. The timber structure is a new gallery space and installation designed in collaboration with Trillium Dell Timber Frame. The foundation is behind the regeneration of four contiguous city blocks in south Chicago. Photography: Kendall McCaugherty, 2019. Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial.
The work of Cape Town based architects established in 2012 by Heinrich and Ilze Wolff, Wolff, is inspired by the colonial history of Cape Town. At CAB 2019, they present Summer Flowers, 2019, a research project looking at the life of South African writer, activist, and gardener Bessie Head (1937–1986). Collaborating with a wide range of people including photographers, artists, filmmakers, and writers, they see architecture as a method for addressing social inequities, as well as the erasure of indigenous landscapes and narratives. Pictured here: exhibition design of African Mobilities: this is not a refugee camp exhibition, Architectur Museum TUM, 2018. Photography: Lindsey Appolis
Berlin-based Clemens von Wedemeyer, who has a professorship in media art at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig and previous shows at MoMA PS1, the Barbican Art Centre, Frankfurter Kunstverein and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago under his belt, presents his work Transformation Scenario, 2018. The piece juxtaposes real and fictional images with simulated crowd-control scenes produced by police training software. Pictured: Transformation Scenario, 2018, 20 mins. Courtesy the artist and Gallery Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, KOW Berlin
Black Quantum Futurism (BQF) brings a new interactive installation, Community Futures Lab, to the biennial. The work encourages Chicago residents and visitors to offer personal accounts of housing displacement and belonging through oral recordings, art making, and public debates. BQF is a Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary creative practice between Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips that weaves quantum physics, afrofuturism, and Afrodiasporic concepts together through community-based projects, performances and experimental artworks. Pictured: Black Quantum Futurist Womxn Portal (Rear View, Right View).
‘The Plot: Miracle and Mirage’ is a research project by Alejandra Celedón, Nicolas Stutzin, and Javier Correa that explores the history of free-market economics through a case study of a group of Chilean economists trained at the Chicago School of Economics during the 1970s and 80s who were responsible for conceiving the wholesale privatization of social services and financial infrastructure during their country’s violent right-wing military dictatorship. Celedón curated the Chilean pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018 where he presented a large-scale model of the National Stadium in Santiago, critically reconstructing the arena as a temporary residential project in response to the city’s housing crisis. Pictured: Nine Lookouts in Patagonia, 2018.
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Assemble at the Logan Center Gallery
View Google MapsTurner Prize-winning architecture collective Assemble descends upon Chicago with ‘Tufting Gun Tapestries’, an exhibition showcasing a fertile culture of craft. The heart of the show features textile experiments produced by Assemble and multidisciplinary artist Duval Timothy, in collaboration with Demond Melancon and the Material Institute in New Orleans. Until October 27. 915 E 60th St arts.uchicago.edu/logan-center
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Now What?!
View Google MapsAt Chicago’s Co-Prosperity Sphere, this travelling exhibition draws links between the Chicago design community and the larger social and political movements of the late 20th century including the civil rights, women’s, and LGBTQ movements impacted every facet of US society, including architecture and design. The exhibition elected not to be listed or affiliated with the Chicago Architecture Biennial due to the funding it receives from BP. Running until 2 October 2019. 3219 South Morgan Street nowwhat-architexx.org
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Stony Island Arts Bank
View Google MapsAt Theaster Gates’ Stony Island Arts Bank, the exhibition ‘In The Absence of Light: Gesture, Humor and Resistance in The Black Aesthetic’ brings together 20 artists who reveal their personal worlds through ‘laughter, painting gesture and isolation.’ Also see the Tamir Rice gazebo, relocated and reconstructed outside the Stony Island Arts Bank in memory of Tamir, who at 12-years-old was murdered by a Cleveland police officer at the Cudell Recreation Center in Cleveland, Ohio in 2014. The gazebo was dedicated in June this year. Exhibition runs 19 September – 29 December. 6760 S. Stony Island Ave rebuild-foundation.org
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CAB off-site location: Overton Elementary School
View Google MapsThe Anthony Overton Elementary School was designed by Perkins and Will and opened in 1963. lt closed in 2013, one of 50 public schools closed that year in Chicago. In 2017, with the support of the CAB 19 grant, Borderless Studio stepped in to re-activate the building, and think about the closed schools as sites of potential. A community-led gathering will kick off on 21 September with workshops, neighbourhood tours of Bronzeville, performances and food. Find projects by Biennial contributors Borderless Studio, Herkes İçin Mimarlık (Architecture for All), studioBASAR, and Zorka Wollny here. 13:00-16:00, 21 September 2019. 221 E 49th St creativegrounds.org
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Tatiana Bilbao at the Graham Foundation
View Google MapsExplore the studio practice and philosophy of Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao, in the exhibition ‘Tatiana Bilbao Estudio: Unravelling the Modern’ at the Graham Foundation. She is currently designing a brutalist, ethical aquarium in Mazatlán. Can’t wait? Read a Q&A with her here. The exhibition runs from 16 September to 11 January 11 2020. 4 W Burton Pl grahamfoundation.org
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SOM’s Stereoform Slab
View Google MapsStereoform Slab is an experiential open-air concrete pavilion envisioned by SOM, Sterling Bay, McHugh Construction, Odico, Autodesk in the city’s West Loop. It’s an innovative 1:1 prototype of a research idea which combines advanced robotic technology with current construction methods to reduce material use. Opening reception: 18:00 – 21:00, 17 September, registration required. September 19, 2019 – January 5, 2020 (1245 West Fulton Market). The powerhouse firm will also be showing a bench carved by a robotic arm in the drawing room in the lobby of the Chicago Athletic Association hotel (12 S Michigan Ave).
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Open Studios at Mana Contemporary
View Google MapsAn explosion of creativity in the Pilsen neighbourhood, Mana Contemporary Chicago can be found in an enormous landmark building designed by noted local architect George Nimmons. On 22 September, the site will throw open its doors – to artist studios, exhibitions space and cafes – between 13:00 – 16:00, offering a chance for the public to explore. 2233 S Throop St manacontemporary.com
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Mega cabbage patch at Garfield Park Conservatory
View Google MapsDanish artists Gamborg/Magnussen plant a field of 10,000 cabbages and set up an outdoor garden kitchen in the middle of Garfield Park Conservatory. Commissioned by the Danish Arts Foundation, in collaboration with Garfield Park Conservatory and the Chicago Park District the project is designed to explore how landscapes can shape communities. 300 N Central Park Ave garfieldconservatory.org
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Under construction: Studio Gang’s Vista Tower
View Google MapsWhile in Chicago, take your chance to check in on progress at Studio Gang’s Vista Tower – the residential and hotel complex soon to be completing in the downtown Lakeshore East area. The three interconnected volumes of differing heights are slowly but surely rising, and at ground level the design features a vital pedestrian connection to the Chicago Riverwalk. We had a first look at it back in 2016 when it launched. See what else is coming up from the pro-active, socially-minded and innovative studio led by Jeanne Gang here. 345 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601 studiogang.com
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MASS Design Group in discussion
View Google Maps‘Architecture is not neutral; it hurts or it heals’ – says MASS Design Group, the Boston-based studio behind The Gun Violence Memorial project which can be seen at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of CAB 19. For this talk at the Chicago Architecture Center, Jha D. Williams of MASS Design Group will discuss the role of architecture in illuminating important issues such as gun violence. Booking required. 13:30, 21 September, Gand Lecture Hall. 111 E Wacker Dr architecture.org
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Assaf Evron at 900 N Lake Shore Drive
View Google MapsA new site specific work by artist Assaf Evron titled ‘Collages for the Esplanade Apartments’ wraps around the windows of Mies van der Rohe’s 900 N Lake Shore Drive. The project, commissioned by EXPO CHICAGO as part of the IN/SITU Outside programme, is inspired by Mies’ collages of domestic interiors and American landscapes from 1938. 19 September – 03 October. 900 N Lake Shore Dr expochicago.com
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EXPO Chicago
View Google MapsThe 8th Chicago EXPO art fair brings 135 galleries from 24 countries and 68 cities across the world to the city. Look out for the IN/SITU programme of large-scale installations across the city and OVERRIDE a city-wide billboard contemporary art take-over. Pictured, Thomas Struth’s Gelatin silver print of Wabash Ave./The Loop/Madison Str., Chicago, 1990. Image courtesy Thomas Struth and Marian Goodman Gallery. September 19 – 22, 2019. Navy Pier Festival Hall, 600 E. Grand Ave expochicago.com
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Chicago Cultural Center
View Google MapsThe beaux arts living room of the city, and central location of the Chicago Architecture Biennal ‘And Other Stories’. Find projects by Theaster Gates, MASS Design Group, ConstructLab and Forensic Architecture, and much, much more here. Monday – Friday 10:00 – 19:00; Saturday, Sunday 10:00 – 17:00. 78 E Washington St chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org
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Re-Rooting + Redux project at the Sweet Water Foundation
View Google MapsOver the past five years, the team at the Sweet Water Foundation has transformed four contiguous city blocks in Chicago into three acres of urban farms, a large community garden and converted disused buildings into education, residencies and workshop spaces. Their CAB 19 project, titled Re-Rooting + Redux, is a new gallery space and installation designed in collaboration with Trillium Dell Timber Frame Construction is inspired by the framing and construction method of Chicago’s worker cottages. Check website for visiting times. 5749 S Perry Ave sweetwaterfoundation.com
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Julia Fish at DePaul Art Museum
View Google MapsThe first major museum survey of Julia Fish’s work for more than 20 years explores the work of the American artist (and professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago) where she taught from 1989 to 2015. Her paintings map colour, form and light from her own house, and its vernacular architecture — a Chicago storefront designed by Theodore Steuben in 1922. Also see exhibitions ‘Architectural Annotations’ and ‘Remember Where You Are’ which explore the effect of architecture, geography and place on individual narratives. All opening evening of 12 September, and on view until 23 February 2020. 935 W Fullerton Ave resources.depaul.edu/art-museum
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National Public Housing Museum: screenings, talks and a BBQ
View Google MapsExplore Chicago’s history of housing through a talk and musical performance between Malose Malahela, Jim Duignan and Jeff Kowlkowski at the Little Italy Branch Library (21 September) and, a BBQ dinner and evening of films screened outdoors on the site of the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes (25 September). Screenshot pictured from More Than One Thing (1969, 30 mins) to be screened on the night. 625 N Kingsbury St nphm.org
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Modernism, Mexico and Midcentury at the Art Institute of Chicago
View Google Maps‘In a Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair: Six Modernists in Mexico at Midcentury’ explores works inspired by local Mexican traditions and modern methods – featuring experimental weaving by Sheila Hicks, design objects by Cuban-born furniture and interior designer Clara Porset and organic sculptures by Ruth Asawa. Exhibition runs until 12 January 2020. Pictured, Lola Álvarez Bravo. Anarquía arquitectónica en la ciudad de México (Architectural Anarchy in Mexico City), about 1954. Collection of González Rendón Family. © Center for Creative Photography. Photography by Rodrigo Chapa, courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago. 111 S Michigan Ave artic.edu
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Utopian futures at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
View Google MapsTwo architecture-related exhibitions to check out while you’re in Chicago for the biennial this autumn. One: ‘Chicago Works: Assaf Evron’ featuring photographs of architecture in Chicago juxtaposed with photographs from Israel, on view until 16 February 2020. Two: ‘The Shape of the Future’, running 19 October 2019 to 5 April 2020, which visualises a collection of utopian futures including works by Buckminster Fuller, David Hartt, Yto Barrada and Damien Ortega. Photography: Peter McCullough. 220 E Chicago Ave mcachicago.org