Curbed Chicago - Chicago Architecture Biennial 2019: ...and such other storiesLove where you live2019-12-18T14:56:25-06:00http://chicago.curbed.com/rss/stream/180285552019-12-18T14:56:25-06:002019-12-18T14:56:25-06:0011 exhibits we loved at the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2019
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<img alt="A large building with arched windows and columns with a red and green banner in the window. A group of people walk past the staircases." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/u9GfzUSkRrHaKOBjyOlmIlD_9OE=/241x0:4090x2887/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65288100/_MG_5954_HDR_HiRes.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Chicago Cultural Center | Francis Son</figcaption>
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<p>A library of activism, a decolonized history, and an activated former public school</p> <p id="OrKI3V">The Chicago Cultural Center is the anchor for the city’s largest architecture festival—the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Walking into Preston Bradley Hall, you’ll see a towering banner with a <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/land_acknowledgement">land acknowledgement</a> from the American Indian Center of Chicago. It recognizes the city as the traditional homeland of the Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and many other nations.</p>
<p id="2k5Gd1">This statement, along with the other exhibitions and installations, sets a new tone for the citywide event. The three-month festival, which ends January 5, 2020, is centered around four themes: land and belonging; architecture and memory; rights and advocacy; and collaboration and discussion.</p>
<p id="0OMbie">For a design festival, these themes address issues often overlooked in the industry. The biennial, titled “...and other such stories,” is less concerned with <a href="https://www.curbed.com/2017/9/18/16317224/chicago-architecture-biennial-2017-must-see">new takes on skyscrapers</a> and more interested in how to solve some of the biggest problems of our time, such as housing rights and pollution of the natural world.</p>
<p id="Y7wn72">The leaders of the third edition, Artistic Director Yesomi Umolu and co-curators Sepake Angiama and Paulo Tavares focused heavily on strengthening the educational and community aspects of the biennial through collaborations, some with high school students, local architecture firms, and international artists.</p>
<p id="cuPSCo">“We didn’t want Chicago to just be a backdrop,” said Angiama.</p>
<p id="3x5DaG">At many of the exhibits and <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/visit/venues">off-site venues</a> there will be lectures, discussions, and other events throughout the biennial from September 19 to January 5. Here are some of the exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center and off-site locations that stood out during opening week.</p>
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<img alt="A large gallery room with wooden desks and stacked bricks arranged artfully. there are three large windows. On person in a black dress walks through the space and another listens to an video through headphones." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MJxn6QMTfzcvarbeWUD-MIlyGXM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214075/Chicago_Biennial_install_3_Kendall_McCaugherty.jpg">
<cite>Kendall McCaugherty</cite>
<figcaption>One of the Chicago Rooms at the biennial.</figcaption>
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<h3 id="fgzRBR">The legal language of land and value of black space</h3>
<p id="RM9M7n">Part of the Chicago Rooms at the Chicago Cultural Center, <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/theaster_gates">Theaster Gates’</a> “Landed: Gates et al.” consists of wooden desks with decorative building artifacts, large spiraled notebooks of art made from legal real estate jargon, and framed letterpress prints with words like “black space isn’t vacant.” A black and white video gives a snapshot of the South Side’s history with vignettes from public housing demolitions to present day buildings. </p>
<p id="yKeMbH">The project is inspired by the <a href="https://www.curbed.com/2015/9/2/9924926/hans-haacke-photography-slumlord">work of Hans Haacke in the ’70s</a> that detailed the real estate holdings of Harry Shapolsky, a notorious and exploitive New York City real estate investor. In a similar framework, Gates uses documents and photographs to catalog his own real estate acquisition history, which involves restoring and activating more than 35 abandoned buildings in under-resourced communities. Gates’ was behind the <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2015/9/18/9920052/stony-island-arts-bank-tour">Stony Island Arts Bank</a>, a structure that sat vacant for three decades before becoming a gallery, media archive, library, and community center.</p>
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<img alt="A three-story school with blue bricks and concrete edges. There are large windows on each floor. People sit at wooden picnic tables under the shade of trees." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SJ-eUmXodvqjZU2YzBZS1Grb6Is=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214129/IMG_9817_copy.jpg">
<cite>Sara Freund</cite>
<figcaption>The former Anthony Overton Elementary School.</figcaption>
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<h3 id="eOrR71">A reactivated South Side school closed in 2013</h3>
<p id="4JzgkI">One of the <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/visit/venues">off-site curatorial spaces</a> of the biennial is the Anthony Overton Elementary School in the Bronzeville neighborhood. When the city decided to shutter 49 elementary schools, Paola Aguirre Serrano of <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/borderless_studio">Borderless Studios</a> began to call developers who had purchased the sites to find out what was going to happen to the schools. In 2015, she connected with Ghian Foreman who had purchased the building as the developer and was open to hearing Serrano’s ideas about how to activate the space in a period of transition.</p>
<p id="19B0Ek">Since then, Borderless Studio has managed a series of design projects and now new work will be exhibited after a week of research and youth workshops. As an off-site location, there are multiple exhibitions, installations, and events at the space.</p>
<p id="aJrINJ">There are double-level picnic tables that resulted from <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/herkes_in_mimarlk_architecture_for_all">Architecture For All’s</a> student workshop on how neighborhood memories can be shared at meals. A <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/zorka_wollny">Zorka Wollny</a> audio installation contrasts vacant classrooms with the vibrant recordings school sounds using kids from Dyett High School and Williams Prep. Two maps are painted on the asphalt at Overton: one depicts the school closures across the city and the other shows Bronzeville’s amenities like parks, museums, and historic sites. </p>
<p id="pMBNm5">This past summer, <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/studiobasar">studioBASAR</a> worked with high school students to envision how the courtyard could be transformed for the neighborhood. During the biennial, the firm led a handful of community days where local <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2X35wYJLIA/">residents worked on projects</a> that involved woodworking, spray painting, stenciling, photography, and video documentation. </p>
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<img alt="A translucent display with a metal frame in front of a marble wall. There is text that says: This marble was quarried and assembled by exploited labor." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PeFJWVY3e6WY0ZJoZj2Xet7ZtMA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214106/IMG_5712_copy.jpg">
<cite>Sara Freund</cite>
<figcaption>One of the signs in the “Decolonizing the Chicago Cultural Center” project.</figcaption>
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<h3 id="VYwKEO">A decolonized history of Chicago</h3>
<p id="EO1mtg">The translucent displays of “Decolonizing the Chicago Cultural Center” are inconspicuous, but the stories printed on these reveal an important history. Led by architects María León and Andrew Herscher, the <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/settler_colonial_city_project">Settler Colonial City Project</a> research collective commissioned by the biennial investigated the hidden colonial violence embedded in the building’s materials, symbols, and labor. </p>
<p id="Bw5c25">The project tags what is traditionally valued and reminds the viewer of its true history. Bold text printed on the windows of Yates Hall overlooking a corner of Millennium Park read: “You are looking at unceded land.” Another example, the Tiffany-built dome in Preston Bradley Hall, is admired as the largest in the world with 30,000 pieces of glass. However, León and Herscher note Tiffany & Co.’s long practice of appropriating designs from Indigenous people and acknowledge these people’s displacement.</p>
<p id="jfL3Uo">Hunt through the first, second, and fourth floors to find the displays and pick up one of the red booklets which details all of the Settler Colonial City Project’s research for the biennial. </p>
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<img alt="In a large staircase landing there is a circular bookshelf with rounded benches. On the open shelves there are rows of books, magazines, and posters." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2ZQRB0dkPbFhOYk3Jakb2vVSb2o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214065/Chicago_Biennial_install_13_Kendall_McCaugherty.jpg">
<cite>Kendall McCaugherty</cite>
<figcaption>The library features books from Chicago authors.</figcaption>
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<h3 id="2HK5b5">A library for the resistance</h3>
<p id="IABZ7h">Nope, this isn’t a biennial bookshop but a delightful “Anarchitechtural Library” curated by artist, theorist, and urban designer <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/adrian_blackwell">Adrian Blackwell</a>. It honors the Chicago Cultural Center’s history as the city’s first public library and pays tribute to organizations fighting to keep public space alive. Visitors are invited to scan the shelves filled with local authors and sit at the curved benches for a read.</p>
<p id="FoBYQv">The library details histories of public housing destruction, school closures, environment degradation, and mass incarceration. Some of the texts include a radical coloring book <a href="https://southsideweekly.com/color-me-rising/">Color Me Rising</a>, a history of ’60s public art and black liberation <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wall-Respect-Liberation-Chicago-Stories/dp/0810135930/ref=asc_df_0810135930/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312050264297&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8862687105449485786&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021712&hvtargid=pla-534081053717&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=61316180559&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312050264297&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8862687105449485786&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021712&hvtargid=pla-534081053717" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Wall of Respect</a>, and Eve L. Ewing’s <a href="https://eveewing.com/#/ghosts-in-the-schoolyard/">Ghosts in the Schoolyard</a>. </p>
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<img alt="A corner shows a 4 by 4 row of black and white square images on two walls. They show neighborhood scenes, people, and buildings." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vunKfLiv1gUb2-tw-RLkFvvS5eQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214111/IMG_3172_copy.jpg">
<figcaption>Some of the images in “Easy Like Sunday Morning.”</figcaption>
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<h3 id="PC02Oe">A photography walk through North Lawndale</h3>
<p id="18OwQj">British-Nigerian photographer <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/akinbode_akinbiyi">Akinbode Akinbiyi</a> visited Chicago’s Homan Square for a month-long residency where he met with students, artists, activists and neighbors during three open photography workshops. In his typical style, he documented the urban landscape in North Lawndale and other neighborhoods walking the streets quietly photographing. In “Easy Like Sunday Morning,” one wall shows images from North Lawndale and the other shows images in other parts of the city, drawing parallels between the city’s communities.</p>
<p id="RSFOdQ">Akinbiyi’s photographs sit across from another striking piece in the Chicago Rooms at the Chicago Cultural Center. <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/maria_gaspar">Maria Gaspar’s</a> “Unblinking Eyes, Watching,” which is a full wall image of Cook County Jail’s most historic concrete barrier. All the viewer sees is the institution’s worn down gray wall, but on the other side is a major intersection in a residential neighborhood.</p>
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<img alt="A curved wall has blue and yellow writing on it. There are low seats made out of recycled material like wood scraps, plastic, and purple foam tubes." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JR08AtleLXFYxRojVYrzrsQBlhU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214060/Chicago_Biennial_install_5_Kendall_McCaugherty.jpg">
<cite>Kendall McCaugherty</cite>
<figcaption>A gathering space at “How Together.”</figcaption>
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<h3 id="yCPLTl">A room for assembly made from recycled materials</h3>
<p id="6o6KKc"><a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/constructlab">ConstructLab</a>, a group of designer-builders that uses recycled materials, chose to address togetherness by creating an “agora”—an open space for public assembly in a project titled “How Together.” Visitors are welcome to take home a small book on a low, curvy table. It’s an “anti-manual” with stories and instructions on all the possibilities of transforming space. </p>
<p id="jo15wk">The funky seating area in the Chicago Cultural Center made out of painted wood scraps, pool noodles, clear plastic, and crates acts as a gathering area. Throughout the biennial, the space served as a place for designers, writers, and artists to lead programs and hold discussions.</p>
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<img alt="A brick building with the windows painted orange sits in the middle of a park with green grass and a blue sky. There is metal fencing and scaffolding in the courtyard." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_N9MRK8DbpOkT7ZIXNUHcWWju1U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214134/IMG_9335_copy.jpg">
<cite>Sara Freund</cite>
<figcaption>The future site of the National Public Housing Museum.</figcaption>
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<h3 id="T9CBoC">An audio tapestry at the last remaining building of Jane Addams Homes</h3>
<p id="eIDvbH">The future site of the <a href="https://www.nphm.org/">National Public Housing Museum</a> in Little Village is another <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/visit/venues">off-site location</a> for the biennial. Together the <a href="http://stockyardinstitute.org/">Stockyard Institute</a> and <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/keleketla_library">Keleketla! Library</a> installed exterior scaffolding around the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes. </p>
<p id="oo2F1n">For the project “Listed.” the artists captured visitors’ movements and conversations through a walkway linked up with microphones and speakers. The recordings will be “woven into an audio tapestry” combined with relevant historic readings. As the audio is developed, it will eventually be linked online and have a home at the new location of the NPHM.</p>
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<img alt="A black and white image shows eight kids playing on an abstract concrete sculpture of a bull and cat. " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MFupHiAJysUSyVMhEmfDDDd5YLM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19217372/Image_from_iOS_copy.jpeg">
<cite>Image courtesy of Kolin and the National Public Housing Museum</cite>
<figcaption>The concrete sculpture outside public housing in Little Village.</figcaption>
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<p id="AyTxBF">Currently in fundraising mode, The National Public Housing Museum has plans to open in 2021. While every building from the public housing complex was demolished in the early 2000s except 1322 W. Taylor Street, the museum did recover incredible, original stone animal sculptures. They’ll be restored and installed in the courtyard again when the space reopens in a few years.</p>
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<img alt="A glass structure with white wood outlining the shape of bricks acts as a case for memorial items." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LFF9BLAnjftoZ5-YDZZphetBA5o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214145/IMG_3931_copy.jpg">
<cite>Sara Freund</cite>
<figcaption>One of the structures in the memorial project.</figcaption>
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<h3 id="K9ZQrR">A memorial for victims of gun violence</h3>
<p id="Byu3We">One of the most discussed installations from the biennial this year, “The Gun Violence Memorial Project” invites visitors to walk through a memorial which honors the lives of gun violence victims at the Chicago Cultural Center. There are four glass workers cottage with objects collected through remembrance workshops: a delicately folded Bulls jersey, photos, a graduation tassel, buttons, and a plastic flower. In each structure, audio interviews with relatives detailing stories and memories play through speakers.</p>
<p id="3kBGDn"><a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/mass_design_group_in_collaboration_with_hank_willis_thomas">MASS Design Group</a>, in partnership with the artist Hank Willis Thomas and the gun violence prevention organizations Everytown for Gun Safety and Purpose Over Pain worked to show the magnitude of gun-related deaths that occur over a single month in the United States.</p>
<p id="FWddwW">In the final weeks of the biennial, the exhibitors will host <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/events/gather_remember_act1">one last gathering</a> at the cultural center featuring a performance from Wilco’s John Stirratt and other musicians.</p>
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<img alt="A wood exhibit with a timeline in the background. There are videos with headphones and painted flags displaying the MSTC name." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KkU0zj1xaBt-fNI-c3_V4gkLR5c=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214069/Chicago_Biennial_install_18_Kendall_McCaugherty.jpg">
<cite>Kendall McCaugherty</cite>
<figcaption>The MSTC exhibit.</figcaption>
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<h3 id="rVhY3d">A Brazilian city’s social movement for housing rights</h3>
<p id="Uvf0Ct">Establishing housing as a right is presented through several biennial exhibits including projects from <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/camp">CAMP collective</a>, <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/ficafundo_imobilirio_comunitrio_para_aluguel">FICA</a>, and <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/usina_ctah">Usina-CTAH</a>. In São Paulo, Movimento Sem Teto do Centro (City Center Homeless Movement) is one of the most active organizations advocating for fair housing policies and does so by occupying vacant downtown buildings.</p>
<p id="IdK5lp">There’s a clear difference between this practice and invading a space. For example, in 2016 the movement occupied a government office building that had been vacant for 42 years. It was mixed-use with 12 floors of housing that went completely unused in a city with a 93 percent housing deficit. Members of MSTC worked to make it habitable again by renovating and cleaning the abandoned building. </p>
<p id="j2qWS7">The collaboration between <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/mstc_in_collaboration_with_escola_da_cidade_and_o_grupo_inteiro">MSTC, Escola da Cidade, O Grupo Inteiro</a> presents the movement’s highly organized strategies for pressuring the city to implement equitable housing policies through timelines, painted flags, and videos at the Chicago Cultural Center.</p>
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<img alt="A wooden shelf with glass jars and dried flowers. There is a collage of images in the background with a small cork board containing postcards of farmer stories." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5PudAzKU2dmVQbzMNwaJ2H6pmJQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214153/IMG_4926_copy.jpg">
<cite>Sara Freund</cite>
<figcaption>The seed library.</figcaption>
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<h3 id="WkLnPu">An heirloom seed library</h3>
<p id="UrmvIN">“Marj and Prairie: Eating Our Histories” explores the impact of colonial practices on the natural world. The seed library created by <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/vivien_sansour">Vivien Sansour</a> is a collection from plants that are nearing extinction because of the disappearance of communal farming or environmental change. In the Chicago Cultural Center on wooden shelves, there are bundles of dried flowers, glass jars of earthy seeds and legumes, and books on Midwest foraging. A glass table with more earthy objects has a basket of postcards with photos of Palestinian farmers and their personal stories of farming in both Palestine and the U.S. heartland. </p>
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<img alt="A panel with hanging papers shows a hard copy of the archive’s case studies. " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RMFtfkLo4WfkyrbSzlLRZWZ0koo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19214155/IMG_0188_copy.jpg">
<cite>Sara Freund</cite>
<figcaption>Examples of the archive’s catalogued projects can be seen at the Hull-House museum.</figcaption>
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<h3 id="lbG9W3">An accessible archive of art that solves problems</h3>
<p id="gadIcx">At another <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/visit/venues">off-site venue</a>, the <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/visit/venues/jane_addams_hullhouse_museum">Jane Addams Hull-House Museum</a>, artist <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/current/contributors/tania_bruguera_asociacin_de_arte_til">Tania Bruguera and Arte Util Archive</a> presents its network as “an idea of art as a tool for social change.” Arte Util literally translates to <em>useful art</em>, but their initiative goes further than that. Perfectly in line with theme of this year’s biennial, the project catalogs the work of artists from around the world who are solving problems. </p>
<p id="9rGw1u">During the biennial, the organization reactivated the museum as a space for neighborhood groups, artists, and activists. Chicagoans submitted their own suggestions for the archive too and at the end of the festival Arte Util will map out the local organizations it will add to the archive of case studies.</p>
https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/9/20/20873010/chicago-architecture-biennial-2019-must-seeSara Freund2019-09-17T17:04:19-05:002019-09-17T17:04:19-05:00Mayor Lightfoot is an advocate for architecture and design, Maurice Cox says
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<img alt="Steps with gold railings lead to a large archway with gold metal doors. There is a green and purple banner on either side with the Chicago Architecture Bienniel titles." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vkJkjzsCkR-qD-UuUeqKWVF6ge4=/0x0:4032x3024/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65266947/IMG_1686_copy.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Washington Street entrance of the Chicago Cultural Center | Sara Freund</figcaption>
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<p>City leaders kick off the Chicago Architecture Biennial</p> <p id="x5kF81">The <a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/">Chicago Architecture Biennial</a>, a massive citywide design festival, opens on Thursday. The event’s third edition titled “...and such other stories” commissioned work from artists, architects, and visionaries that explores how the built environment shapes communities, cities, and nature.</p>
<p id="U0HhSN">On Monday night, the city’s new Commissioner of Planning and Development <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/7/19/20700645/chicago-illinois-development-maurice-cox-detroit">Maurice Cox</a> welcomed <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/6/3/18651231/chicago-architecture-biennial-contributor-lineup">contributors, curators, and partners to the biennial</a> at an opening reception at the Chicago Architecture Center. It was one of his first assignments on the job and joked he’d only been on the job just about eight hours before arriving to the event.</p>
<p id="qX20BR">Cox left Detroit to take Chicago’s top city planning job. He is also an architect and was the former design director at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p id="DG2tSa">“I’m particularly excited for what is about to happen for Chicago. Lori Lightfoot was the reason I accepted the appointment. I was sitting with her just an hour ago briefing her with where we would like to go with the city. I just think you could not be more pleased to know that you have an advocate in the Mayor of Chicago, an advocate for design. We talked pretty extensively about that topic,” said Cox.</p>
<p id="fDD8Eb">In Detroit, Cox is known for leading an initiative which created neighborhoods residents wanted to stay in long term by improving streets, parks, and amenities. For those curious about Detroit’s transformation, the city’s development department has a biennial exhibition on the fourth floor in the Chicago Cultural Center. </p>
<p id="XQAhuO">Cox’s brief words on Lightfoot are encouraging, as it wasn’t exactly clear how the mayor would embrace the biennial and the city’s legacy of architecture. The first edition of the biennial launched in 2015 and was part of then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s vision to develop a comprehensive cultural plan. </p>
<p id="1zf2Gj">While Lightfoot’s priorities are different than the previous administration, it appears she views the conversations that happen through the biennial as vital for residents, architects, and city leaders.</p>
<p id="L8JkNF">“It’s about how architects and designers interact with cities. How those artists and visionaries can be allies with civic leaders and how we use our shared spaces,” Lightfoot said Tuesday morning. “It’s our mission to capture the initiative theme <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/2/5/18212022/chicago-architecture-biennial-theme-2019">‘...and such other stories’</a> which will focus on how architecture and design itself collaborates with culture and histories. There’s no better place to do this than Chicago.”</p>
https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/9/17/20870952/chicago-architecture-bienniel-mayor-lightfoot-maurice-coxSara Freund2019-06-21T15:25:35-05:002019-06-21T15:25:35-05:00At the Chicago Architecture Biennial, teens get to collaborate with international artists
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<figcaption>A scene for the 2017 biennial at the Chicago Cultural Center. | Chicago Architecture Biennial</figcaption>
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<p>The biennial aims to bring together global architects, designers, and the people of Chicago.</p> <p id="zt1OdV">The Chicago Architecture Biennial is billed as an event that is “free and open to the public” but typically the festival is geared towards practitioners and industry folks. In this third edition, it was important for Artistic director Yesomi Umolu to add inclusive programming that would be accessible and educational for all Chicagoans.</p>
<p id="evOZlV">This year’s theme is “...and such other stories,” and focuses on <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/2/5/18212022/chicago-architecture-biennial-theme-2019">more than just design</a>. The biennial will provide a broader view of the field of architecture by including visual art, policy making, education, and activism in the programming. </p>
<p id="a5m14a">In a recent announcement, the biennial team released details on collaborations and educational opportunities that will open up the biennial to Chicago youth.</p>
<p id="tELQt7">“Kids make the city too. We’re asking what kind of rights to the city do people have? The programs are meant to educate people to understand we are all part of, and shape, cities.”</p>
<p id="KgP08c">The design of a city is influenced by more than just architects and buildings—families, communities, policies, and the environment contribute too, co-curator Sepake Angiama explained to Curbed. The learning initiatives will focus on this idea of collaboration and prioritize engaging communities that have historically been underrepresented in architecture.</p>
<p id="S8aaXd">So far, this is what’s planned for the 2019 launch:</p>
<ul>
<li id="hsLHQs">Free biennial guides for a variety of ages that will help visitors explore, discuss, and interact with exhibitions and themes at the architecture festival. </li>
<li id="RKr5rq">A partnership with Chicago Public School high schools will bring architecture and design curriculum to schools without these programs. Participating schools will visit the biennial, participate in events, and enter competitions.</li>
<li id="glh7Ih">In 2019, there will be 15 creative youth studios that will run from July through December. In three-hour sessions, students will discuss issues raised through the biennial exhibitions and produce creative projects of their own.</li>
<li id="mKgrAE"> In the fall, a competition for high school students will encourage exploration of the built environment through design, humanities, visual and performing arts, and STEM fields. The winning entries will be displayed at the Chicago Cultural Center during the biennial.</li>
</ul>
<p id="obcO6O">“It is important for people to feel like this is a conversation about the city and that we all produce this space together. The biennial is an opportunity to think about architecture, which isn’t always taught in schools, and the spaces we live in. How might we change them?” said Angiama.</p>
<p id="PL6SBK">So far, there are at least 10 artists and architects that will <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/6/3/18651231/chicago-architecture-biennial-contributor-lineup">collaborate with local Chicago organizations and firms</a>. This is another way that the biennial team will bring these important conversations into community spaces. The visiting architects are excited to work and learn in Chicago, Angiama said. She pointed to two examples—the project with Borderless Studio at the site of Bronzeville’s Anthony Overton Elementary School and the photography residency with Akinbode Akinbiyi and high school students in North Lawndale.</p>
<p id="rwEPus">“The biennial is an amazing opportunity to bring these international practitioners and the people of Chicago together. It’s a perfect platform for conversations, ideas, experiments, and figuring out the best way in which to use a space,” said Angiama.</p>
<p id="F1EVvz">The Chicago Architecture Biennial will kick off September 19, 2019, and run through January 5, 2020. This is the third edition of the months-long architecture festival.</p>
https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/6/21/18691876/chicago-architecture-biennial-2019-programsSara Freund2019-06-03T18:08:53-05:002019-06-03T18:08:53-05:00How Chicago Architecture Biennial contributors will collaborate locally
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sre8ukESrRGFwG4ZjAew4bOd3c8=/0x56:4843x3688/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63942867/Roberts_68_Andrew_Bruah.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>International architects and academics will work with locals</p> <p id=":1k5">The Chicago Architecture Biennial team announced more than 80 artists, architects, researchers, and academics from 20 countries that will contribute to the third edition titled, “…and other such stories.”</p>
<p id="Ug4M4J">A <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/3/14/18264089/chicago-architecture-biennial-lineup-theaster-gates">preliminary lineup</a> was announced in March and included <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/7/13/15964470/chicago-95th-street-cta-red-line-terminal-theaster-gates-art">Theaster Gates</a>, <a href="https://www.curbed.com/2018/2/2/16901698/mass-design-group-architecture-boston-rwanda-groundbreakers">MASS Design Group</a>, <a href="http://www.wolffarchitects.co.za/">Wolff Architects</a>, and <a href="http://invisible.institute/introduction">Invisible Institute</a>. In addition to releasing the <a href="http://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/news/chicago-architecture-biennial-2019-edition-contributors-comprise-collaborations-from-global-practices-and-projects-that/">full lineup</a>, Artistic Director Yesomi Umolu also revealed that a number of contributors will be working with Chicago communities and students through residencies and collaborations.</p>
<p id="a6JtZZ">“This edition, we’ve placed a larger focus on supporting new commissions and original research, which allows contributors to expand on their work and explore future possibilities for the practice of architecture in Chicago and beyond,” Umolu wrote in an email.</p>
<p id="OIKBFi">One example, will be a project at the site of the Anthony Overton Elementary School in the Bronzeville neighborhood which was shut down in the 2013 closure of 50 Chicago Public Schools. The design agency Borderless Studio, which has previously used the site in <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2017/10/8/18368582/closed-bronzeville-school-becomes-a-student-art-gallery">previous biennials</a>, will work with <a href="https://herkesicinmimarlik.org/en/">Herkes İçin Mimarlık</a> (Architecture For All), architecture firm <a href="http://www.studiobasar.ro/?lang=en">studioBASAR</a>, and artist <a href="http://www.zorkawollny.net/">Zorka Wollny</a> to explore how art, design and architecture can repurpose civic spaces.</p>
<p id="R1bQXX">Another contributor, photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi from Berlin, Germany is participating in a residency at School of the Art Institute of Chicago at Homan Square in North Lawndale. He will work with young community members to document and explore their environment through a daily photography practice.</p>
<p id="shzq30">Also, the Johannesburg-based Keleketla! Library will work with Chicago’s Stockyard Institute to develop programming on the importance of heritage sites and public housing at the National Public Housing Museum (the former Jane Addams Homes).</p>
<p id="lS3Jke">“This year’s range of contributors and programming were designed to support long term initiatives and inquiries that extend beyond the duration of the biennial. It was important for us to support projects that would have ongoing impact in Chicago and elsewhere,” wrote Umolu.</p>
<p id="iu6ULx">There are 10 contributors, and more to be announced, who are presenting public, collaborative programs throughout the course of the biennial. This edition is putting an emphasis on education and making sure that architecture is “more accessible to a vast audience,” Umolu said.</p>
<p id="9MK395">A part of the biennial will feature a Common Ground exhibition on the first floor of the Chicago Cultural Center. It will be a series of salons, workshops, performances, and installations meant to invite the public, not just industry folks, into the biennial. Berlin-based architects <a href="https://www.constructlab.net/about/">ConstructLab</a> will design the central space which includes work from <a href="https://thefunambulist.net/about">The Funambulist</a>, a magazine and podcast that covers the politics of space; the Settler Colonial City Project based in Ann Arbor and Ecuador; and the Chicago-based American Indian Center. </p>
<p id="4pTbf6">The inspiration for this biennial comes from in-depth research of Chicago’s complexities which raised global questions about place, politics, and housing for Umolu and the other two co-curators Sepake Angiama and Paulo Tavares. And so, it was important for outside contributors connect with local practitioners and communities to understand the city, Umolu said.</p>
<p id="0jNr5s">The Chicago Architecture Biennial, which is free and open to the public across citywide locations, will kick off September 19, 2019 and run through January 5, 2020. This is the third edition of the months long architecture festival. </p>
https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/6/3/18651231/chicago-architecture-biennial-contributor-lineupSara Freund2019-03-14T08:59:46-05:002019-03-14T08:59:46-05:00First look: Chicago Architecture Biennial 2019 lineup
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/t6nfRO0BTbes5Z6Udn5kP5AcaRk=/329x0:5574x3934/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63236704/Chicago_14_09_65021_CREDIT_Iwan_Baan.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Iwan Baan</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Theaster Gates, MASS Design Group, and dozens more join event focused on social justice, collective memory, and civic purpose.</p> <p id="U7fjLL">This morning, organizers of Chicago’s third <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/2/5/18212022/chicago-architecture-biennial-theme-2019">Architecture Biennial</a> announced many of the architects, designers, and urbanists participating in the forthcoming citywide cultural event, introducing a preliminary lineup underscoring the event’s focus on rethinking relationships with public space and civic responsibility. </p>
<p id="cTFesz">The 2019 edition offers reflections, research, and new ideas about aspects of social justice, land use, collective memory, and civic purpose. Artistic director Yesomi Umolu and co-curators Sepaka Angiama and Paulo Tavares, <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/2/5/18212022/chicago-architecture-biennial-theme-2019">recently announced the theme</a>, “...and such other stories,” a concept that side-stepping the standard skyscrapers-and-broad-shoulders narrative of Chicago to dig into how the city reflects global issues of property, the environment, public participation, and memorializing. </p>
<p id="TmXJgZ">The 51 contributors announced by the curatorial team today span 19 countries and a range of disciplines including contemporary art, architecture, and spatial studies. </p>
<p id="xnm6Nf">Highlights include:</p>
<ul>
<li id="NZ4Ugn">
<a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/7/13/15964470/chicago-95th-street-cta-red-line-terminal-theaster-gates-art">Theaster Gates</a>, a Chicago artist known for creative repurposing of buildings as artistic and community hubs, such as the <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2015/9/18/9920052/stony-island-arts-bank-tour">Stony Island Arts Bank</a>
</li>
<li id="1xvglD">
<a href="https://www.curbed.com/2018/2/2/16901698/mass-design-group-architecture-boston-rwanda-groundbreakers">MASS Design Group</a>, a Boston-based architecture practice known for their social justice work and the design of the powerful new lynching memorial, <a href="https://www.curbed.com/2018/4/24/17275094/montgomery-slavery-lynching-museum-eji">the National Memorial to Peace and Justice</a>
</li>
<li id="DdLQO5">
<a href="http://www.wolffarchitects.co.za/">Wolff Architects</a>, a duo of emerging architects from South Africa</li>
<li id="TfIzjT">Forensic Architecture and <a href="http://invisible.institute/introduction">Invisible Institute</a>, two alternative research groups, based in London and Chicago respectively, that use journalists and scientific methods to investigate violence and public accountability</li>
</ul>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/d7aSnZL_a6jMd8cfj5Pq1Gk-UmY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15959286/TG_headshot.jpg">
<figcaption>Chicago artist Theaster Gates</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="CzEuyz">Roughly half of the participants will create new works, in conversation with the curatorial team. </p>
<p id="aiAgPb">“We are especially proud to commission a series of new projects that address some of the most pressing issues of our time while advancing new forms of thinking and practice across the field of architecture and beyond,” said Umolu in a statement.</p>
<p id="2R0AGM">Other additions to the Biennial’s 2019 lineup include CAMP (Mumbai, India), Center for Spatial Research (New York), Tanya Lukin Linklater and Tiffany Shaw-Collinge (Ontario, Canada and Alberta, Canada), Wendelien van Oldenborgh (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Territorial Agency (London, UK), Carolina Caycedo (Los Angeles), Joar Nango (Sápmi, Norway), Adrian Blackwell (Toronto, Canada), ConstructLab (Berlin, Germany) Keleketla! Library (Johannesburg, South Africa), DAA (Beit Sahour, Palestine), FICA–Fundo Imobiliário Comunitário para Aluguel (São Paulo, Brazil), Maria Gaspar (Chicago), Ola Hassanain (Khartoum, Sudan), and RMA Architects (Mumbai, India and Boston)</p>
<p id="GIRQxW">The selection of Gates, celebrated for his art-focused urbanism and community building, as well as progressive architects from across the globe, underscore one of the event’s central aims: highlighting different aspects of Chicago’s urban history, while creating a dialogue between the city and other urban centers, most notably Sao Paulo, Brazil, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Vancouver, Canada.</p>
<p id="uH9UTm">Between issues of class and spatial segregation, as well as land speculation, it made sense to examine how design in other international cities could speak to issues faced by Chicago, Angiama told Curbed. </p>
<p id="7vA5ZO">“The realities of spatial injustice in Chicago co-exist alongside the city’s history as an epicenter of progressive social movements that have often leveraged architecture and public space as sites for social action and advocacy,” according to the curatorial statement. “Chicago is thus an ideal site for investigation of the ways the built space reflects and impacts our understanding of the common, the collective, and the constitutional.”</p>
<p id="Vy4cZm">“I’m really here to talk about our process and research, which very much began in Chicago,” added Angiama during the kickoff press conference. “And not just as a backdrop, but to dig deep and look at the archeology and the present. We had so many questions and we wanted to connect those to other geographies. Looking at the vacant lots, I’ll always be reminded that Yesomi said, ‘Those lots are not vacant, they’re full of memory and those memories are contested.’ We spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to bring all of people’s memories into a public sphere.”</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ppHHY8n2bJQzBEIbK4D4JKT03BQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15959288/MASS_Principals__1_.jpg">
<figcaption>The principals of MASS Design Group</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="bGfixx">The curatorial team wants to highlight approaches to affordable and equitable housing, the stories of indigenous and displaced peoples, as well as the relationship between memorials and social histories. Part of the process involved a long research phase, when the curatorial team also established partnerships with designers and architects in Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, and Vancouver.</p>
<p id="eSz8Mf">“Through these engagements, we have drawn out a myriad of stories about how lived experiences across global communities, cities, territories, and ecologies resonate with architectural and space-making practices,” Umolu said in a statement. </p>
<aside id="aZjb5f"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"Chicago Architecture Biennial team inspired by city’s geography, history, and civic role","url":"https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/10/26/18022722/chicago-architectural-biennial-research-preview-2019"},{"title":"Chicago Biennial announces theme that goes beyond design for third edition","url":"https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/2/5/18212022/chicago-architecture-biennial-theme-2019"},{"title":"Chicago Architecture Biennial: 10 things we loved","url":"https://www.curbed.com/2017/9/18/16317224/chicago-architecture-biennial-2017-must-see"}]}'></div></aside><p id="yPNmTR">The third Biennial’s creative leadership brings diverse perspectives to the roles of artistic director and co-curator: Umolu serves as Director and Curator, Logan Center for Exhibitions at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago; Angiama, a curator based in Europe, focuses on collaborations with artists, activists, and designers; and Tavares, an architect and academic, teaches at the University of Brasilia. </p>
<p id="NRYUUn">The goal is to present architecture as something active in our lives, says Angiama, and not a backdrop.</p>
<p id="839QzV">Billed as North America’s largest gathering focused on architecture, urbanism, and design, this year’s Biennial opens on September 19, based inside the city’s downtown Cultural Center but featuring citywide satellite venues and programming. The 2015 and 2017 Biennial’s brought more than 500,000 visitors to exhibition sites across the city.</p>
<aside id="YAawDc"><div data-anthem-component="newsletter" data-anthem-component-data='{"slug":"chicago-curbed"}'></div></aside>
https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/3/14/18264089/chicago-architecture-biennial-lineup-theaster-gatesPatrick Sisson2019-02-05T11:30:19-06:002019-02-05T11:30:19-06:00Chicago Biennial announces theme that goes beyond design for third edition
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/baP1Pb2WQkgaDaHHxelOn8I3iFs=/174x0:1827x1240/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62999113/HorizontalCity_004_AndrewBruah__1_.1549393065.jpg" />
<figcaption>An exhibit from a former Chicago Architecture Biennial. | Photo by Andrew Bruah, courtesy of CAB</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beyond design, the event will address policy, education, and activism</p> <p id="2u2AXo">After the city’s first two biennials, with titles like “The State of Art and Architecture,” and “Make New History,” this year Artistic Director Yesomi Umolu and her team have chosen a theme that makes an effort to showcase the less shiny history but all important stories of Chicago. </p>
<p id="l9X3O8">“...and such other stories,” will use architecture as a way to examine global issues and bring together diverse perspectives. The third edition of the biennial will side step the well-known narratives of city—like Burnham’s famous vision to “make no small plans” or being home to world’s first steel-framed skyscrapers.</p>
<p id="c9tLzj">The biennial team along with Mayor Rahm Emanuel were in New York City on Tuesday morning to make the announcement about the architecture event.</p>
<p id="61NoWs">Umolu and co-curators Sepake Angiama, a curator whose work centers on education, and Paulo Tavares, a Brazil-based architect and academic, <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/10/26/18022722/chicago-architectural-biennial-research-preview-2019">spent months researching</a> in Chicago and the other cities that will be a focus of the biennial. </p>
<p id="DmPzVc">“Our approach to this edition of the biennial has evolved through conversations with architects, spatial practitioners, and everyday people in Chicago and other global locations, including through partnerships fostered in our research initiatives in the cities of Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, and Vancouver,” said Artistic Director Yesomi Umolu in a statement. “Through these engagements, we have drawn out a myriad of stories about how daily experiences across global communities, cities, territories, and ecologies resonate with architectural and space-making practices.”</p>
<p id="p1LpQV">Rather than focusing on architecture in isolation, Umolu and her team have expanded the scope of the festival to include not just building, design, and planning but visual art, policy making, education, and activism. It provides important context and a much broader view on the field of architecture.</p>
<p id="VMXHt5">The biennial is a way to bring conversations at the forefront of the industry to a much wider audience. The issues framed will fall into four general themes: landscapes of belonging and sovereignty; sites of memory; rights and advocacy; and civic participation. </p>
<p id="BxIiP4">“We are thrilled that this year’s curatorial focus will open up the architectural conversation on key socio-political and environmental issues that shape our present reality and introduce new voices and perspectives. Through the dialogue they catalyze, we expect this Biennial to inform a collectively imagined future,” said Biennial Executive Director Todd Palmer in a statement.</p>
<p id="PwpMnK">The third Chicago Architecture Biennial, which is the largest architecture and design exhibition in North America, will run from September 19, 2019 to January 5, 2020. Just as in previous years, the central location will be at the Chicago Cultural Center with commissions, residencies, lectures, projects, and other programming throughout the city’s neighborhoods at schools, centers, and other venues.</p>
<aside id="ftydUf"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"Chicago Architecture Biennial team inspired by city’s geography, history, and civic role","url":"https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/10/26/18022722/chicago-architectural-biennial-research-preview-2019"},{"title":"Chicago Biennial announces theme that goes beyond design for third edition","url":"https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/2/5/18212022/chicago-architecture-biennial-theme-2019"},{"title":"Chicago Architecture Biennial: 10 things we loved","url":"https://www.curbed.com/2017/9/18/16317224/chicago-architecture-biennial-2017-must-see"}]}'></div></aside><p id="JnQbVX"></p>
<p id="jrDbnQ"> </p>
https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/2/5/18212022/chicago-architecture-biennial-theme-2019Sara Freund2018-10-26T14:16:48-05:002018-10-26T14:16:48-05:00Chicago Architecture Biennial team inspired by city’s geography, history, and civic role
<figure>
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<figcaption>Yesomi Umolu (left), Artistic Director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and Sarah Herda, Director of the Graham Foundation | Jay Koziarz / Curbed Chicago</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Artistic Director Yesomi Umolu discusses her curatorial teams research initiative for the 2019 edition </p> <p id="q4Ngls">Artistic director <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/4/13/17180406/yesomi-umolu-chicago-architecture-biennial-artistic-director-interview">Yesomi Umolu</a> and her curatorial team are still in the research phase for the 2019 edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, but the ideas and themes taking shape for next year’s program are refreshing and use architecture as a way to examine issues beyond the built world. </p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="up6sE6"><q>“We’re using Chicago as a prism to examine these issues and architecture as a lens to focus in,”</q></aside></div>
<p id="NGm0Xb">In a conversation at the Chicago Cultural Center on Thursday, Umolu and Sarah Herda, the Director of the <a href="http://www.grahamfoundation.org/">Graham Foundation</a> and former Chicago Architecture Biennial artistic director, discussed the key concepts for the upcoming CAB: land and occupation; nature and ecology; memory and monuments; and civic participation.</p>
<p id="aHdzi0">Although the biennial is still about a year out, and an official theme hasn’t been announced, the team is beginning to concentrate their research initiatives. Umolu and her two co-curators, educator Sepake Angiama and architect/urbanist Paulo Tavares spent the summer together in Chicago investigating the city’s histories, landscapes, and communities. </p>
<p id="Y3p2qq">What emerged from their study so far will be central to the programming in the 2019 edition of CAB. The team is most interested in investigating how Chicago’s spaces, socio-economic conditions, and history has made it what it is today. </p>
<p id="hldfSH">In plain terms, that means looking Chicago’s geographic location between the Great Plains and Great Lakes, seeing how its Rust Belt history has shaped the city, and examining the city’s founding on federally appropriated indigenous lands. The team will also consider the Chicago’s political role in civil rights, segregation, and housing movements as well as how waves of migration from Europe, the American South, and Central America impacted development. </p>
<p id="8kDeMN">“We’re using Chicago as a prism to examine these issues and architecture as a lens to focus in,” Umolu explained.</p>
<p id="7ZaA5z">In addition to Chicago, the curatorial team will also research three other cities they’ve chose to focus on for the program through a series of public talks, workshops, tours, and informal conversations over the next few months.</p>
<p id="DEas5F">“We thought about how these core topics might connect to other urban centers around the world, and settled on three locations—Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, and Vancouver which is the red herring we threw in there, we think,” Umolu said.</p>
<aside id="jRy067"><div data-anthem-component="newsletter" data-anthem-component-data='{"slug":"chicago-curbed"}'></div></aside><p id="6LJvPh">In Sao Paulo, Brazil the team will explore the housing rights movement and look at how social movements, architects, activists, and indigenous communities use space as advocacy for social justice and civic partnership. They’ll visit Johannesburg, South Africa to see how architecture and memory in contested spaces work in intergenerational communities. In Vancouver, the three curators will focus on indigenous rights, land speculation, housing equity, and architecture as a form of protest.</p>
<p id="kPxCDB">One thing is clear, Umolu and her team want people to think critically about the space they occupy and how it changes. During her conversation with Herda, she spoke about the idea of an architect. Is it someone who is a master builder, or could it be a social leader with how they transform their space?</p>
<p id="RokYhE">Unlike previous biennials, Umolu was eager to begin a dialogue and share the focus of her teams research so that she could be open with practitioners and give faculty the opportunity to shape curriculum around the biennial to prepare students for the programming, Umolu said.</p>
<p id="afPfob">The third edition of the <a href="http://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/">Chicago Architectural Biennial</a> launches on Thursday, September 19, 2019 and run until Sunday, January 5, 2020. Every two years the biennial returns to Chicago with a new artistic director and curatorial team. Artists from around the world are invited to present their work during the biennial which has a main exhibition site downtown at the Chicago Cultural Center but is also anchored at locations throughout the city’s neighborhoods.</p>
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</div></a> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BoUr-ZQFB5z/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">"Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness." — Frank Gehry. Photo by @mattbweitz. #Chicago #FrankGehry #Architecture #ChicagoBiennial</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/chicagoarchitecturebiennial/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Chicago Architecture Biennial</a> (@chicagoarchitecturebiennial) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2018-09-29T20:21:05+00:00">Sep 29, 2018 at 1:21pm PDT</time></p>
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<ul>
<li id="AzDvGA">
<a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/4/13/17180406/yesomi-umolu-chicago-architecture-biennial-artistic-director-interview">Chicago Architecture Biennial’s newest artistic director offers a fresh perspective</a> [Curbed Chicago]</li>
<li id="QMtJZp">
<a href="http://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/">Chicago Architectural Biennial</a> [Official]</li>
</ul>
https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/10/26/18022722/chicago-architectural-biennial-research-preview-2019Sara Freund2018-04-13T14:25:30-05:002018-04-13T14:25:30-05:00Chicago Architecture Biennial’s newest artistic director offers a fresh perspective
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mdGwUfx7EwCRiLbbPCA9lrYH0kc=/0x16:1024x784/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59383863/Yesomi_Umolu_CAB.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Chicago Architecture Biennial</figcaption>
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<p>Yesomi Umolu has a history of showcasing new voices</p> <p id="tjSXaW"><a href="http://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/artistic-director/">Yesomi Umolu</a>, a curator and former architect, was selected as the sole artistic director of the Chicago Architecture Biennial back in <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/3/6/17085930/architecture-biennial-yesomi-umolu-artistic-director">March</a> which puts her in a unique position—both past programs were led by a <a href="https://www.curbed.com/2016/9/21/12999384/chicago-architecture-biennial-johnston-marklee">pair of directors</a>.</p>
<p id="pV5iBB">Umolu will undertake the massive citywide festival of architecture and design along with a curatorial team she is currently putting together. It’s early in the planning stages, but Umolu already has a sense of direction. Last year’s theme was <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/6/27/15880240/2017-chicago-architectural-biennial-cultural-center"><em>Make New History</em></a> and brought in more than half a million visitors to see groundbreaking projects from 140 architects and designers from 20 countries.</p>
<p id="ZvYfmO">In preparing for the upcoming biennial, which will take place between <a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/1/11/16875200/chicago-architecture-biennial-attendance-2019-dates">September 19, 2019 and January 5, 2020</a>, Umolu is focusing on building relationships. This is the part of her work that she enjoys most, she told Curbed Chicago during an interview at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Hyde Park. Currently, she directs the program of international contemporary art at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center Gallery and will continue to do so while planning the biennial.</p>
<p id="8jwOrG">“It’s all about doing the best that I can to showcase an artist’s creative voice. When a project is successful for me, that’s when we’ve been able to do that. Building a good relationship with an artist and using my skills to deliver their voices to the world, that is my task,” Umolu said.</p>
<p id="5IBEA1">The curatorial team that she assembles will most likely involve people who can offer complimentary strengths. As a curator Umolu has a lot of expertise is executing strong visions and voices, so someone “embedded” in the architecture discipline would make a good counterpart, she said. A team that understands the inclusive purpose and expansive nature of the event is important too. </p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="PkuHLZ"><q>“It’s important to me, whatever exhibition I do, that it offers avenues and entry points for everyone,” Umolu said.</q></aside></div>
<p id="En2tGA">Umolu followed the path to become an architect, but after practicing she realized it wasn’t her calling. What clicked was her volunteer work developing youth arts programming at the Tate Modern Museum in London. The team she was on had a lot of freedom—they managed a budget and could do almost whatever they wanted at the museum. She volunteered with people from all different backgrounds on organizing various educational programs and learned about museum curation there. </p>
<p id="2GTZU4">“All of a sudden I realized that there was this thing called a curator and I really felt that’s what I could do,” said Umolu.</p>
<p id="UxQzfL">She entered the world of curating with a background in architecture and hadn’t studied museum practices or art history. That perspective was invaluable and influences how she approaches her work now.</p>
<p id="Uh1VGs">“It was a benefit to my life as a curator, and its important to me, whatever exhibition I do, that it offers avenues and entry points for everyone,” she said.</p>
<p id="K58Hbz">The Chicago Architecture Biennial is anchored at the Chicago Cultural Center, which originally opened as the city’s first public library. Now the building is an important civic space with art exhibitions, performances and events which makes it the perfect anchor for the biennial. </p>
<p id="hTjAnY">“It’s exciting to be able to extend our tentacles out into the city and engage in different parts of Chicago that are strong in architectural heritage,” Umolu said. “One of the joys of this job is that it’s not an exhibition designated to one space.”</p>
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<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZZAySpuwanjtZwSAN1OF9wRUtfE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10648081/shutterstock_99798461.jpg">
<cite>Shutterstock</cite>
<figcaption>Chicago Cultural Center</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="kxUSap">Biennials are unique, spanning entire cities and bringing together high-brow industry leaders and the general public for a conversation. In addition to the exhibitions and events, she hopes to leverage the program’s educational opportunities.</p>
<p id="tnKG2n">Umolu is familiar with the process—she’s worked on Manifesta 8, the European biennial and serves on the curatorial advisory board for the United States Pavillion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale.</p>
<p id="8KRHar">Some might think it’s challenging to cater to such a broad audience, but Umolu sees it as an opportunity to showcase some of the most interesting architecture and design work through inclusive engagement.</p>
<p id="xgycKn">“I think that’s the work that curator’s do. I see it less as a challenge, it’s just the task at hand.” </p>
<p id="HYTJhM">For a little under a decade, her work has focused on global contemporary art and how artists address spacial questions. She makes it a point to work with artists who haven’t had major recognition in the United States or Europe and elevate those voices. She’s particularly interested in artists located in Latin America, Mexico, Africa and South Asia. So it wouldn’t be surprising to see some of this reflected in her vision for the biennial’s third program.</p>
<p id="4M6mnD">As a “global citizen that has lived in places all over the world,” she said she hopes her experiences and interests will bring something different to the architecture and design discourse.</p>
<p id="jjysB8">“In general, biennials should not be seen as singular occurrences. It has a life that spans years, if not decades, and is meant to map architectural production across a long time frame. I’m excited to add my own perspective. And whoever comes after me, they’ll build upon that or challenge what I might do as well,” Umolu said. </p>
<ul>
<li id="WrVgy9">
<a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/3/6/17085930/architecture-biennial-yesomi-umolu-artistic-director">Chicago Architecture Biennial names Yesomi Umolu as artistic director for 2019 edition </a>[Curbed Chicago]</li>
<li id="NsNp5P">
<a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/1/11/16875200/chicago-architecture-biennial-attendance-2019-dates">Chicago Architecture Biennial attracts half million visitors, 2019 program dates announced</a> [Curbed Chicago]</li>
</ul>
https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/4/13/17180406/yesomi-umolu-chicago-architecture-biennial-artistic-director-interviewSara Freund